Workerbee
by T.C.Rose
Summary: Cloud is a low level security guard at Shinra with nothing to lose. Tifa is the President's daughter with everything to gain. Can their worlds come together, or will they collide? R&R!
1. The Life Of A Security Guard

Author's Note: Finally a new story, hopefully this will get me back on track with Victim but I need your help, yes YOU! I don't know what to do in the next few chapters of Victim, the team needs to get to the Corel prison and several months need to go by, but I don't know what to do to pass that time. So I guess I'm holding a little contest for you all to tell me what should happen, and the winner gets umm…their idea into the story, and also credit for it I guess so uh… yea please help me.

-----

Nightfall elicits a multitude of unwarranted activities not to be conceived during the daylight hours. Defalcators, larcenists and other such caitiffs would scour the caliginous alleyways that stretched for endless miles like a spider's web throughout the industrialized city of Midgar. Such cad's referred to the period between dusk and dawn as their "primetime" which was, in its most glorified persona, an allocation to maim, purloin or even abduct information or persons a prowler may deem worthy of fiscal gain.

Midgar, a city filled with more greed and brothels than any other town in the world, never slept, as sanctioned by the amaranthine plethora of lights emitting from the windows of every sleazy establishment, every neon sign hung above each after-hours bodega and the placards outside the many disreputable casinos. It seemed to attract all that is sinful in the world and house it, which was what made it the largest city on the planet. It was more than five times the size of its closest rival, Junon, a city formed as a sister to Midgar's leading industrial center, Shinra Inc.

Shinra Inc. The mere mention of its moniker sent chills up the radical separatist and anarchist's spines but also brought heartfelt warmth to the families of the veritable proletariats and chattels that were all too under-paid and over-worked by the covetous pockets of the board members. Shinra, or more commonly accredited as "Sinra" by the insurgents, did, in fact, employee nearly seventy percent of the world's population under its syndicate and affiliates. It boasted not only the world's largest skyscraper, but also the most grand-scale militia in history. Fueled by a somewhat, if not totally lacking, intelligent, spineless, acquiescent team, this military was responsible for nearly all the destruction caused during the Wutai War. Its history was dated much further back in time than the company itself, having first gained recognition pre-thirteenth century, at a time when civilization was just learning of its capacity.

Shinra, formed more recently, was able to gather the armament while it seized control of the city, a monumental achievement held by the President of the company, Mr. Nigel Shinra. Shinra was born in the preliminary years of the present century, to a mother and father of great monetary stature. His father acquired control of most of the city officials through his weapon's manufacturing plant, supplying adequate amounts of force to the local police and holding prices above their heads for his services. Nigel, wishing to accomplish far greater than his father, turned his attention towards the mounting pressure for a new energy source.

In his early adulthood Shinra realized that the life force of the planet, or Lifestream, was the most renewable source of energy on the planet, and was virtually holding the terrestrial sphere together. He found that by siphoning the Lifestream from its various veins throughout the Earth, the stream could be converted into an efficient energy source, or Mako. It wasn't until after the empire had risen into power that Shinra discovered the true nature of the Lifestream and that the effects it had on his workers would be devastating.

Like most major conglomerates, Shinra had its private vault of classified documents containing critical information on the consequences of exposure to Mako in a controlled environment. Of course, such a bombshell would eradicate the company so Shinra's top executives had as many of the resulted monsters that could be found locked away in one of their reactors, the machines used to draw the Lifestream out of the planet. It was then established that Lifestream was not only just a life force, but also the very blood of the plant, what made the macrocosm survive. After running a massive amount of inconclusive experiments, it was theorized that Lifestream was made up of dead souls, the souls from the people who have died. This had been documented in the time of the Ancients as a phenomenon known as "returning to the planet," the afterlife as most would call it. When those souls came into contact with the living, the resulting biological reaction would cause severe deformities and extreme personality changes. Humans became creatures seemingly bent on the destruction of the living, and although hundreds of thousands of workers became ill with the poison, only a handful were ever captured and contained in the Nibelheim reactors. Since creatures feared by the people already inhabited the world, Shinra was able to right off the incidents as a "new breed of evil."

However adverse Shinra may appear, the majority of the planet agreed that the Mako reactors were a necessary part of advancement and outweighed the small bands of so-called terrorists who knew what the reactors were doing to the planet, but were doubted by critics. In its constant quest for superiority, Shinra Inc. would occasionally need to discipline said terrorists in order to create a world unit where everyone believed that Mako energy was safe and efficient, at any imperative cost, whether money or human life were involved.

-----

Footsteps, pounding on a concrete floor like the beating drums in a heavy metal band sounded throughout the hallways. Vehemently clapping against the ground beneath them the boots of security guards charged up the stairs like a swarm of hornets, intent on annihilating its prey. Their eyes focused on the danger before them the men, dressed all in blue, their hearts beating against a chest plated with bullet-proof steal and their utility belts swaying with the movement of their hips as they took each thunderous step.

Up several more flights of stairs and past an empty secretary's desk, a light blinking on the corner as a red warning. The sirens and alarms fluctuating as they sprinted toward their radar blip, a flashing yellow circle on an electronic map in the basement of the building where the night watchman spend their shifts. Endless marching continued up every stairwell, although only several guards occupied each, their numbers increasing rapidly as they were joined by other teams from all levels of access.

"Come on Rookie, follow me!" The harsh tone of the commanding officer bellowed as he turned his head to glance behind him quickly, making sure that the new blood had not gotten cold feet.

The young man preceding him, only about twenty-one, had just been hired for night duty that day, and, as luck would have it, on his first night on the job, a terror alert bared attention. With his weapon of choice, a sword, in hand, he sprinted behind his superiors, his adrenaline rising and his pulse accruing.

"I'm here, don't worry." He huffed with the corner of his lip curled into a sardonic smile.

They rushed up the last flight of stairs and burst through the large metal doors into a room with hundreds of computer storage units, the heart of the classified vault. The dozens of security officers spread out around the room, crouching about as they searched for the perpetrator.

A sudden gust of wind caused by body movement whisked through the center of the chamber, snapping the guard's heads toward its fleeting direction. The young man was the first to react, as the others seemed stunned for a split second. He had learned long ago that that split second of hesitation could mean the difference between life and death.

He slid out into the hallway, nearly falling to his knees and held up with one hand, he pushed himself up like an Olympic runner dashing for the finish line. He followed the atramentous blur through a winding labyrinth of doors and walls. He could hear the angered cries of his troop leader screaming for him to come back, and the footsteps of his co-workers behind him, trying to catch up to his speed as he found himself pushing off walls to steady himself. Nearly tripping head first on the slippery tiles he caught his balance and pressed on, finally losing his target at the end of a corridor, and paused to look around him to get his bearings. He didn't know ever square-inch of the building like many of the other guards, but an acute sense of hearing drew him to the door on his left.

He promptly withdrew his sword and held it in front of him poised to strike. He shifted his eyes to look around the inky blackness before him and could just barely make out the form of a man sitting comfortably on top of a control panel. Just as the young guard began to raise his sword the lights came on, momentarily blinding him.

"Ah, for the love of--" the commanding officer whined, throwing his hands in the air and turning around to look at his lower ranks. "False alarm everyone, its just Jasper."

The man atop the panel just grinned with a look of conceitedness in his eyes as a dense moan sounded down the hallway as the troops soon dissipated. The young man was perplexed and stood his ground as his superior came up beside him. The latter, a large, burly black man in his mid-thirties, towered over the younger blonde man with spiky blonde hair that was a mess atop his head.

"…Who?" The young man asked, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"That's Jasper, he's a step beneath the head of our department. He's responsible for making sure we do our job orderly. You could say he's just a lackey." The black man stated, rolling his eyes and placing a hand on the younger man's shoulder.

"Thanks for the introduction, Barret, but if I were in your position I wouldn't make sniveling remarks like that." Barret again rolled his eyes. Jasper seemed to get impatient and rose from his seat, folding his arms across his chest. "It appears to me that your men are fifteen minutes too slow at responding to an alarm. Not only that, not one of them was able to catch me, by the time you arrived I already got every important piece of data I need to destroy the company."

"Sir—" Barret tried to reason.

"I'm not finished Mr. Wallace. The only one of your men that came anywhere close to apprehending me was this young man hear, had he been trained as to the floor plan of this building, I'm sure he would have caught me. As for you however, I can hardly say the same. Get your troops in order soon, or you're fired, and my ass is on the line."

"Dammit Jasper," Barret said, slamming his fist against a nearby desk, "you could have warned me their was gonna be a drill!"

"If I had warned you, it wouldn't be a candid attempt. You won't know when a real terrorist is striking, how can you expect me to tell you in advance when there'll be a dry run?" Barret snorted and turned his head. "Keep an eye on this kid here, he does good work, he might even be a candidate for Soldier." He continued, nodding toward the young man. "What's your name, son?"

"Cloud, Sir. Cloud Strife." The blonde answered admirably.

"Well Cloud, keep working and next time watch your balance." Jasper teased with a smile. Cloud nodded and returned the glance as Jasper began to head for the door. "Well, I'm off, you guys get back to work and Barret," Jasper stopped in the doorway and turned to face Barret, "I'll be keeping an eye on you. Don't screw up again or you're out on your ass." And with that, Jasper was gone.

Barret scoffed and threw his fist into a wall, causing dust from the ceiling to rain down on them. He shook his head and stared at Cloud, his eyes filled not with jealousy or bitterness, but with regret.

"Good job, Strife. Even if you didn't follow orders."

-----

With daylight hours came the last job for the midnight shift security guards. As the day workers filed in by the masses, Barret, Cloud and the other officers were required to check each individual's I.D. card and walk them through a metal detector, just to be sure that there would be no Shinra terrorists working on the inside.

Cloud sat on a stool at the end of a rolling belt from one of the checkpoints. His head rolled back and forth as his eyes gently succumbed to lethargy, then waking up as soon as he felt his head fall forward. He could barely stay cognizant after the events that had transpired just a few hours earlier.

"Hey, couldn't handle it last night?" Barret asked, coming up beside him and waking him from another episode.

"Nah, don't worry, I'm fine, just resting my eyes." Cloud quipped.

"Look alive son, look alive." Barret countered while patting Cloud on the back.

Cloud smirked and folded his arms, crunching his stomach slightly as he again began to fall asleep. He had just about passed through the gates of consciousness when the first onset of dreams approached him, rendering him unaware of the rapidly impatient tapping of an expensive designer pump against the tile floor in front of him.

"Ahem." An angry voice huffed.

Cloud blinked open his eyes and waited for them to focus on the ground before he slowly brought his gaze up to look upon the owner of the black heeled-shoes. He followed the feet up to the legs that were so perfectly crafted, they could only belong to a goddess, then up to hips that held up a waist so tiny and a stomach so flat and covered by the shortest dark gray tweed skirt he could imagine possible. He continued to raise his head to look upon an airy pink dress-shirt with a cerulean neckerchief fastened atop her collar and sporting a matching tweed jacket. Her face, he thought, must have been carved by an angel, her lips tightly pursed into a cantankerous frown. Her nose was a perfect slope, her skin the color of a bronze statue, the sun radiating all around her and her eyes, the most gorgeous crimson-chocolate, of which he had never seen. Her eyebrow was raised in begrudging anticipation, and her hair flowed loosely about her shoulders, a deep chestnut waterfall cascading down to her waist. He was in awe of her aura, temporarily mesmerized by the enchantress before him. Lost in deep longing, he failed to notice the flick of her wrist as she checked he watch, nor did he hear the sonorous groan emanating from her throat.

"Excuse me." She restated for possibly the tenth time while tapping Cloud on the head. Cloud quickly snapped back into reality and met her eye contact. "Hi. Umm…could you let me through?" She said with an instantaneous smile. Cloud grinned back until he realized what she was asking.

"Oh, right. Can I…see your I.D. please?" He asked, remembering his job. She appeared to be taken aback as she looked at him with disconcerted indignation. She nearly laughed at the mention but was answered by an equally confused expression.

"Go on through Ms. Lockheart." Barret said, finally stepping in. The woman nodded in appreciation to him and turned back to Cloud.

"See you around, cutie." She said with a seductive smile that nearly made his heart melt right then and there. He stared after he as she sauntered through the lobby and into an elevator, smiling and waving nervously at him when she turned around.

"Just let your heart be broken now, she ain't gonna be yours." Barret said, standing next to Cloud. The blonde looked up at him with pleading eyes. "That's the president's daughter, people like her would _never_ even _consider_ guys like us." Cloud lowered his head in defeat.

"But…her name…isn't she a Shinra?" He said, shifting his eyes in confusion.

"Yeah, but when she was born they gave her her mother's maiden name so that she wouldn't be burdened with the Shinra expectations, didn't work cuz the world knows who she is." Barret said with a shrug.

"But she did talk to you, she doesn't always say anything to any of us." Another security guard piped up.

"She probably got laid last night." Yet another one chirped. "She only comes in this early if she had one hell of a night, if ya know what I mean?" He continued, thrusting his hips.

"Randy, shut up and get back to work!" Barret seethed, raising his hand as if he would strike. "Forget about him, he's just bitter cuz she turned him down fifty-two consecutive times." Randy glared and returned to his post.

Cloud couldn't help but feel despair. He had just about fallen in love at first sight and yet, he could not have her. He left the Shinra building with his head held low and his hands in his pockets. If something he felt so suddenly and so strongly wasn't real, then what did love really feel like?


	2. The Life Of An Heir

Author's Note: A new chapter for Workerbee, yes. I've started on one for Victim as well but I don't know if it'll be up before this one or not. I should really write these Author's Notes after I finish a chapter. My inspiration for writing this story again came from watching "The Notebook" long ago, a movie that practically kept me in tears the entire duration. A beautiful plot, and I am in love with it.

Also, contrary to popular belief, (I don't think anyone really thought this but oh well) I'm not dead! I really lost touch with Victim and just sort of forgot about Workerbee, and then I met my new beau and I stopped EVERYTHING in my life until he went to boot camp . Plus at the end of last year I had a different boyfriend and many terrible things happened, but nevertheless, I'm all right, I'm alive, and most importantly, I'M BACK!

- - - - -

For most people a Monday night meant staying at home and catching up on the work that piled up over the weekend. It was a night meant for quick dinners, little nutrition and very few words. Couples seemed unmarried and uninterested in each other, and for the majority, sex was never an option for the first day of the new workweek.

This, however, was not the case for the spawn of the affluent. Their lives were an endless exhibition of lights, music, dancing and drugs. Without souls or morals, these young people created the stereotype for people their age, wild and out of control.

The techno rock blared all around from the mounted wall speakers set up throughout the penthouse, overlooking a sea of beer bottles, cans and food wrappers. If anyone was still sober enough to wonder what color the floor was, they were out of luck since it was covered with trash. At three o'clock in the morning, the party showed no signs of slowing down. Adults who should be in college but weren't because they had so much money that any sort of an education past high school was extraneous, still danced nonstop, bumping and grinding up against the person closest to them, whether they knew that person or not. Some of the hottest girls in the whole city walked half-naked around the room, others dancing in skirts that should have been considered belts, and shirts that covered less than a brassiere.

Partiers danced atop the couch cushions in the living room, shaking one fist while holding a bottle of beer in the other, careful or course, not to spill the liquid. In the kitchen drinking games were being held, one consisting of a girl sitting on the counter, pinned against the cabinets by a man who was not her boyfriend, her legs spread open revealing what was beneath her skirt, with one arm wrapped around the man's back and the other holding the funnel end of a beer bong high into the air. Without even paying attention to the game, she shrieked with pleasure while trying to make out with the man on top of her. People all around laughed as another man poured an expensive imported beer down the funnel and into the mouth of an already wasted partygoer who could barely keep his lips on the cheap plastic as he snickered, the liquid spilling all over his chest without his knowledge.

All of the penthouse's bathrooms were packed with couples having sex, some with lights on, others without. Bodies were stacked in the bathtub; others pinned in the shower and still others happy on a countertop. The worst of it was that none of the couples realized that any of the others were in the room with them, or that the blonde's boyfriend was making out with a brunette in the same room as she kissed his best friend. The bedrooms were occupied by the kinky partners, the threesomes, orgies and even several rapes. Clothes were strewn about all over the carpet and the lights were dimmed, the music could not be heard over the screams and moans.

The study had been taken over by the drug addicts. All the windows were closed and the air had practically been replaced by smoke. In the middle of the musty space was a coffee table with bagged rocks and prepared white dust. Lines were being set up and the name of the game was to see who could make the longest. Pipes and bongs were being passed around in a circle, and needles were being plunged into the anticubitals of the veteran partiers, and every kind of pill was being passed around like candy.

At midnight the goddess of all parties had showed up. Her presence measured a party's worth, if it was deemed good enough; there was a chance that she would make an appearance. Each night she and her friends of close-knit money-hungry gossipers scoured the town for the most raging social event. She returned to the living room from the kitchen, stumbling and swaying as she walked, her rich chocolate hair hanging about her shoulders like a lion's mane, scruffy and in need of a good brush. She carried a bottle of that same expensive alcohol in one hand and a glass of hard liquor in the other. She managed to make her way to a chair where her best friend sat, waiting for her beer.

"Thanks Hun, this one rocks huh?" Her friend asked.

After several beers, the young virtuoso of the party scene was still alert and awake, unlike most girls her size who would have passed out hours ago. She wore a muted pink bikini halter-top with a red rose on the left breast and a deep burgundy corduroy skirt that barely covered her bottom and left the sides of her pink thong stretched over her hips. Her cappuccino colored platform heels accented her hair of the same color, which had been braided into many pieces earlier that day for the party and pulled back into a messy ponytail with a couple strands shaping her face. A large pink scarf was wrapped around the ponytail and hung down to her shoulders. Her luminous jade colored eyes were fixed on the drink she was bringing to her lips. She chugged half the bottle and set it down hard on the coffee table in front of her, while her friend watched.

"Yeah, it's great." The goddess responded with a smile.

She wore a tiny white mesh tank top that reached down to her midriff and a bright red bra beneath that which barely covered her large breasts. She wore an equally short black skirt and red running sneakers of an expensive label. She laughed aloud as one of the other guests made fun of a girl in the other room. Having always been a lightweight, no matter how many parties she went to in a week, she was beginning to feel the effects of her decisions. She put several fingers to her temple lobe after feeling pain during her laugh. The room had been blurred for a couple hours and she felt her world surrounding her with darkness. She leaned back on the couch and dropped her glass to the floor, her head rolling back as she became the first person of the night to pass out.

- - - - -

Cloud Strife had not been able to concentrate on his work all night. He had been staring at the same floor tile for the past four hours, ever since he had arrived. Since at the present moment there was no real work to be done, Barret had let him sit around in his own world and dream about what he would never have.

"Hey man, you still alive?" Barret finally asked, tapping the young officer on the side of the head, snapping him back to reality.

"Huh? Oh, yea, sorry, I was daydreaming." Cloud responded.

"I know. But let it go man." Barret said, placing a reassuring palm on Cloud's shoulder. "You don't even know her."

"Who?" Cloud asked, confused. Surely Barret didn't know what had been on his mind for the past couple hours.

"You know who. Honestly there's no future in her. Its not worth getting hung up on."

Cloud couldn't help it. She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen and he would have done anything to make her his. He just wanted a chance to talk to her, to convince her that she should be with him. What harm could that do? But he also knew that he would never get that chance. He'd probably never see her again anyway.

"Shit! We got trouble, Barret we need your help!" Charleston, another employee yelled while looking through one of the large windows that made up the front entrance wall and motioning his hand for Barret to come over.

"What's wrong?" Barret asked before looking for himself.

Charleston just pointed to the walkway that lead up to the massive building. At the end and in the darkness an expensive sport utility vehicle had pulled up and two young women had exited and pulled a third girl from the back. The third girl was unconscious and limp as the others laughed and dragged her halfway up the concrete path.

"Aeris shouldn't we take her to her dad's house?" A girl with short black hair wearing a green halter-top and khaki shorts asked.

"Who cares? I can't drive any further." The girl in pink barked at her friend. She leaned over and patted the unconscious woman on the cheek. "Teef, wake up. Come on Teef…its no use."

Aeris tried to stand up but fell back on her bottom and started laughing even louder. The girl with her shook her unconscious friend and pleaded with her to wake up. She too laughed when Aeris tried to stand up.

"Shit Yuffie! There are people here." Aeris laughed as Yuffie's eyes widened. "We've gotta go, come on!" She cried as she staggered back to the car, with Yuffie trailing behind and taking one last look at their friend as they abandoned her and drove off.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit!" Barret groaned while throwing his head down. He thought for a moment and scratched the back of his head. "Let's go bring her in." He moaned.

Cloud watched as Charleston and Barret went outside and hovered over the form of a young woman lying in front of the Shinra building. He wasn't sure who it was, but Barret picked her up and carried her body inside, her head rolled back over his wrist and her hair flowing in the night breeze. He set her down on the floor in front of the security checkpoint and felt for her pulse.

Cloud couldn't believe his eyes as he moved the hair off of the woman's face, revealing none other than Tifa Lockheart. She was filthy and the stench of alcohol emanated from her body and nearly made him gag it was so strong. He sat down next to her and lifted her head off of the cold, hard ground and placed it on his knee. He wasn't thinking about how beautiful she was, he was only concerned with her safety. Barret noticed him stroking her cheek but said nothing, just continued to labor over her form.

"Someone else is taking her tonight cuz I'm sick of this job!" Barret argued while Cloud looked at him, puzzled.

"You mean this isn't the first time that this has happened?" Cloud asked in amazement. Barret rolled his eyes.

"No, it's happened before. Normally I take her home for the night so she can detox without her dad finding out, but this isn't in my job description so one of you saps can deal with her." Randy was the first to offer his services.

"I'll take her!" He said, enthusiastically. Barret glared and shook his head.

"You ask every time and every time I tell you hell no! I ain't trustin her in your care if you was the last guy on earth!" Barret snarled. Randy just looked away. "Whatsa matta? The rest of you all got girlfriends? Shit, that's just great, now I'm stuck with her. Again." Cloud looked around for a moment before attempting his plea, which he didn't expect to work.

"I could take her. I live alone so no one would be bothered by her." He stated, hoping Barret would agree.

"Right, I'm gonna leave her with _you_. You're as bad as Randy!" Barret yelled, shaking his fists.

"No, no, it's not like that. You said you didn't want her and no one else can take her, I just wanna make sure she's gonna be alright, that's all." Cloud asserted.

Barret hesitated and sighed. He didn't want to allow it, but he knew the only other choice was to suffer through yet another night with a drunken heir. He weighed his consequences and nodded.

"Alright, fine. Take her. But—" He held up his index finger, "you better not lay a dirty hand on her!" Cloud nodded obediently.

"I promise she'll be alright." He added.

"Go, take off early just make sure no one sees you with her." Barret instructed. Again, Cloud nodded.

The young blonde lifted Tifa's head off of his knee and cupped it in the palm of his hand and slowly lowered his hand to her back while placing his other arm beneath her knees to lift her off of the ground. Her arms hung limply at her sides and her head rested against his chest as he carefully shifted her weight and walked out of the building and to his car. He set her down on the pavement and propped her against the passenger side door while he fumbled with his keys.

She stirred. A soft moan escaped her lips and he bent down to brush the hair out of her face, thinking she was waking up. He was dead wrong, and she turned her head to the side and vomited. Cloud grabbed her hair to keep it away from her face and grimaced. He never imagined such a beautiful girl to get so drunk, or that he would be the one to take care of her. When she finished she closed her eyes and slipped away once again. Cloud opened the car door and lifted her into the seat and buckled her seatbelt. As much as he loved being in the same car with her, he couldn't help but feel irritated at her irresponsibility. He just didn't understand how someone could let themselves get to the point that she was at, the point of drunkenness.

He drove slowly, trying his best not to make any sudden stops or movements that might make her vomit in his car. It wasn't a nice car, just a simple sedan, but still he wouldn't be able to deal having to clean up after a stranger, whether she was gorgeous or not.

He arrived at his apartment just a short time later and parked his car. He looked around to see if any lights were on in the complex before proceeding to take Tifa into his arms once again. He carried up to his front door and set her on the ground beside his legs while he took out his key and unlocked the door. He picked her up once again and carried her over the threshold and into his bedroom.

Cloud set the sleeping princess down on his bed and pulled the covers over her body. He brushed her hair away from her face and stroked her cheek. He wanted to stare at her the whole night, but he knew that that would be wrong. He knew that he could spend the rest of his life just looking at her beauty, and wished that he were able to.

Instead of being like most men caught in a situation of such caliber, Cloud Strife would make good on his promise to Barret. Instead of slipping into his bed next to his crush, he retired to the living room and drifted off to sleep on his couch. It wasn't the most comfortable night's sleep he had ever had, but it sure beat waking up to an angry and confused goddess.

- - - - -

She blinked her eyes several times before adjusting to the light of the morning sun. She looked around the monochromatic room trying to comprehend her surroundings. It was not Barret's house, and a wave of fear rolled through her body. Where was she and how did she get here? And who was she with? The room was too small and boring to be that of one of the partygoers, which meant she had been taken by a stranger.

She felt her heart start pumping as she felt over her body for signs of a rape or anything else. She was still wearing her clothes from the night before, except for her shoes, and did not feel as though she had been taken advantage of. But she could not tell for sure what kind of a person would take her from a party and not do anything to her. The only person she trusted was Barret, and he wasn't around.

She got out of bed slowly so as not to make a sound, and searched the bedroom for any kind of a weapon. She looked through the closet and could only find some shoes, but it was the best she could do. She grabbed the largest boot she could find and held it over her shoulders, in case the man whose apartment she was in was waiting for her.

She opened the door slowly, keeping her free hand firmly gripped around the toe-end of the shoe, ready to strike with it's sole if she were in danger. She peered out into the hallway for any sign of trouble, then looked to her right and into the living room. The apartment seemed to be empty, except for a large spike of blonde hair resting on a pillow on the sofa.

Tifa walked over to get a look at the man who had brought her to where she was. She had half expected to see a corpulent balding man, the type of man who would abduct a woman. Instead she found young man who looked like he might have been the type of person to frequent one of her parties. He was attractive, blonde, tan and muscular, the sort of perfection that only the privileged could attain. By the looks of his apartment and clothes, he couldn't have been opulent, but she had never heard of a commoner with such good looks. The way she was raised, and the way her mother spoke, only prosperous people were good enough to be beautiful.

Tifa stared at the man for quite sometime, not even realizing what she was doing, until he moved a little and eventually woke up. His eyes widened as he saw her lovely form standing over him with an old boot in her hand. He immediately shot up, frightening her back into her original suspicions and raised the shoe once again, ready to hit him if he came any closer.

"Don't come any closer." She warned, holding her hand out at arms length in front of her with her palm facing him. Cloud could only return her stare with one of confusion.

"Hey, whoa, just put the shoe down, I'm not gonna hurt you." He said, motioning his hands toward the ground to try and calm her down.

"Bull shit." Tifa hissed. Cloud couldn't believe that such a pretty and petite woman could have such a spiteful tongue. "Who are you and why am I here?" She said, backing away from him towards the front door. Cloud let out a sigh of relief before answering.

"I'm a security guard at Shinra. Your friends left you in front of the building last night and Barret told me to take you home so that you could sober up." Cloud confessed, relieved to get a chance to explain himself. Tifa slowly lowered the shoe to her side and tilted her head bewilderment.

"Barret told you to take me home?" She sounded almost hurt when she spoke, as if she felt abandoned or betrayed. "Why?" She asked, looking up at him with wide eyes.

"He uh…" Cloud didn't want to hurt her feelings by telling her that Barret viewed her as a burden, so he quickly made up a lie to satisfy her. "He had company." Pleased with his lie, Cloud nodded his head, but Tifa could see right through him.

"You're lying. Barret's sick of taking care of me, isn't he?" The brunette questioned further. Cloud hesitated before nodding again. Tifa groaned and sat down on the couch, leaning back into the cushions and crossing her perfect legs. "I knew it. You know, the first time he took me home, he was all concerned about me, but the last time, he seemed like he was sick of me." She leaned forward and propped her chin up on one of her hands. "It's not like I like being like this. I do all my work, I just like to party." She stated without even looking at Cloud.

The young blonde wasn't sure how to respond, so he just inched his way to the couch and sat next to her. "I'm sure he's not sick of you, he probably just wishes you could take care of yourself." He stated, sympathetically. Tifa stood up angrily and moved away from him.

"I can take care of myself." She barked. "You don't even know me, I don't even know you, how can you say that?" Cloud stood up slowly.

"I'm sorry, I don't know you, but when I saw you last night, I felt really bad for you…"

"Don't feel bad for me, I'm having the time of my life!" She snipped.

"Are you?" Cloud asked.

Tifa opened her mouth to say something but reconsidered. Was she really happy with the way she lived? No one had ever asked her how she felt about anything. Most people told her their opinions and asked her to agree. She plopped down on the couch and contemplated his question.

"I'm happy." She stated. Cloud thought of saying something but she continued, "I'm lonely sometimes, always having to satisfy other people. I go to parties to make other people happy, so that they can say 'Tifa Lockheart came to my party'. I go for my friends, I go for the drinks. But I'm happy." She added, looking back at him with a satisfied expression.

"Sounds like a great life." Cloud commented. He had to admit that it sounded great to party like that every night without worrying about the consequences, and he was sure that he was not alone in his feelings.

"It is, but sometimes I wish that I didn't have to go to a party a night." She said with a laugh. Cloud nodded and looked around the room.

"Do you want a drink, a water?" He asked. Tifa nodded and he walked into the kitchen to get her one.

"Your home is so simple." She stated, following him into the kitchen and taking a seat at the breakfast table. Cloud tried to not take the comment as an insult and accepted it as an heir's mistake. Tifa had probably never been in such a small apartment, she was only used to posh and lavish mansions.

"Well, that's what you can afford as a security guard." He mused.

Tifa laughed out loud and he wasn't sure whether it was her hangover or if she truly found him amusing. He put her glass of water in front of her and waited for her to take a sip, instead, she took it as if it were a shot of alcohol and set the glass down hard on the table. When she had finished the looked up at him in astonishment.

"You're a security guard?" She exclaimed in disbelief. She may not have expected him to be of high class, but she never expected him to be a lowly security guard. Cloud was surprised by her echo and looked back at her as if she had two heads.

"You don't remember me do you?" He countered, almost in misery.

He could never have forgotten her and yet, she had easily waved him off and gone on with her life as if he hadn't existed. It was enough to crush a man's spirit. Tifa shook her head and continued to look confused.

"Yesterday morning, I asked to see your I.D. because I didn't know you were the President's daughter." Cloud informed her, hoping to see a glimpse of recognition in her beautiful eyes.

"Oh that's right, I knew you looked familiar." She said, smiling and pointing at him. "You're the cute one." She added, making Cloud's heart pump faster than ever.

"The cute one?" He asked, just wanting to hear her say it again.

"You look like the type of guy I'd see at one of my parties, that's why I couldn't believe you were a security guard." She confessed, biting her lip.

"Really?" He asked, still not believing she was actually standing in his kitchen talking to him.

"Yeah, I bet if you went to one you'd fit right in. In fact, I have some friend's you should meet, why don't you come to one tonight?" She asked, putting a finger to her lip and smiling at her own idea.

Cloud was taken aback by her suggestion. The most gorgeous woman on earth just invited him to one of her parties to meet her friends that could make any other man on earth drool at just one sight of them. His jaw dropped at her notion and was lost for words. He blinked a few times before regaining his ability to speak.

"You…you want _me_ to go to one of _your_ parties?" He asked, trying to convince himself that this was for real. Tifa nodded.

"Yeah, I bet they'd never suspect you weren't…uh, that you're a security guard." She smiled.

"I have to work tonight." Cloud said, remembering that he needed to pay the bills. Tifa looked as if she had been shot, no one had ever rejected one of her requests. She felt as if she had been stabbed, and quickly thought of a plan to regain her dignity.

"What about this weekend?" She offered, motioning her hands towards him, as if tossing her idea to him.

"This weekend works." Cloud answered, trying to hide the excitement he was feeling deep in his gut.

"All right then." She smiled, then looked at her watch. "Oh, I should be getting to work, it's getting late." Cloud nodded and reached for his keys.

He led Tifa out to his car, happy not to have to carry her any more. She weighed next to nothing but it was nerve racking trying to sneak her around. And he wasn't used to carrying people around, either. He opened the door for her, of which she was accustomed to, and then got in on his side.

It was far more pleasant to be in the car with her while she was conscious. He felt like he was driving around a real person, not just a body. She didn't say anything at first, just stared out the window and watched the buildings go by. It was a new experience for her to be in such a run-down part of town. Even Barret's house was in a nicer looking neighborhood than that of Cloud's apartment.

"You'll love my friends, they're a lot of fun." She informed him.

"I can't wait." He said, wishing that he could have gone to the party that night. "What about your clothes?" He asked, looking over at her. He had almost forgot that she was still wearing the same outfit from the party.

"Oh don't worry, I'll clean up in the executive washroom and have someone buy me a new suit, it'll be fine." She said with a grin, delighted about letting a lesser person know of her wealth and power.

Cloud couldn't help but find her a little conceited, as he had expected. He wished that she would prove him wrong and not be like all the snobby upper class citizens he had always heard about. But he couldn't blame her for living in a different world. She was about his age, so she couldn't possibly have known any other kind of life other than the luxurious. He only wished that he could have been raised that way as well.

He pulled into the Shinra parking lot and again opened Tifa's door for her. She smiled and stayed by his side as they walked through the front doors. Cloud felt like a god standing next to her and walking into a public place with such a gorgeous woman. His co-workers would still be working, since they had to watch the building at night and check everyone's I.D. in the morning. It was a tough job with long hours, but the pay was decent so no one complained.

The other security guards snapped their heads when they saw Cloud walk in with Tifa. It actually seemed like the pair walked in together, usually if she walked in with Barret she wouldn't look at him and rushed to the elevator, trying not to be seen with him. She stopped and turned to him before the security checkpoint and smiled once again.

"So I'll see you this weekend then?" She asked, confirming that she would not be stood up. Cloud nodded and received a kiss on the cheek from the princess before she turned to walk through the checkpoint.

Cloud watched her sashay towards the elevator with a love-struck expression on his face. He was lost in thought even as she disappeared behind the elevator doors and didn't notice the other security guards come up to him.

"See you this weekend?" Randy questioned, bitterly.

"Huh? Oh it's nothing." Cloud lied, wishing that he could tell everyone about his conversation with the heir.

"You better hope it's nothing or her father will have your head!" Barret warned.

Cloud swallowed a lump in his throat. Was this really nothing? She did say that she wanted him to meet her friends; there was nothing about her in the request. Maybe she just thought he was good enough for her friends, but not for her. Or maybe…


	3. The First Party

Author's Note: For those of you who are reading this story and Victim, please note that Victim is on hold until I get more reviews, I have more chapters update and completed and I'm just waiting for more reviews. I only have 8 and there are four chapters up, I used to have 400 and need more! I posted one new chapter of this story and got seven reviews immediately, I appreciate the enthusiasm for Workerbee, but Victim is my flagship, and it has been changed and is better! I promise, please review! This chapter, wow, I can't even begin to tell you how satisfied with it that I am. It's like, my pride and joy chapter! YOU MUST REVIEW!

- - - - -

Friday couldn't arrive quick enough for Cloud Strife. The woman he had set his sights on had invited him to one of her upper class parties where all the rich, famous and beautiful young people went to have fun and ruin their lives. It was the type of party one could only dream of, they type of party only seen on Spring Break Live in Costa Del Sol.

Cloud had been plagued by the other security guards about what happened while Tifa was at his house and why she said she would see him on the weekend and even gave him a kiss on the cheek. He had remained quiet, fearful that speaking about it would cause his dream to become untrue, or that rumors would begin that would destroy his world.

"We just talked." Was all that he said. Unsatisfied with his answer, Barret and the others continued to hound him.

"Where are you going this weekend with her?" Randy prodded, standing just inches away from Cloud. The young blonde grimaced and backed away from his elder, as if he would catch a disease.

"Nowhere." Cloud lied. He wanted the week to end so that he could escape the taunts and accusations of his co-workers and settle down into a night that he knew he would never experience again.

"Just make sure you don't get caught with her, or daddy Shinra will have his agents after you." Barret said, for about the millionth time since he had first seen Cloud with Tifa. Cloud rolled his eyes and groaned.

"I know, you've told me that over and over again, I got it." Cloud joked.

It was about time for the graveyard shift guards to clock out and go home for the day when she arrived. She created her own hours since she was the boss' daughter, but no one knew for sure what exactly she did for the company. There were rumors that she was in charge of helping the top executives "relax" or that she sat in boardrooms just to get deals for her father. Cloud never believed any of the rumors, not only for the fact that dirty employees loved to talk, but also for the question of what kind of father would hire their own daughter to "service" his employees?

She stopped at Cloud's station and waited for him to check her in. She didn't act any differently around him than she did with any other employee. Cloud prayed in his mind that she only acted that way so that no one would get suspicious, but he was also pretty confident it was for the fact that she had no feelings for him.

"You get off work soon?" She asked, the first thing she had said to him since Tuesday. Cloud was shocked and barely remembered how to speak for a moment.

"Uh…yeah…" He managed to squeak out, still unable to fully look into the eyes of the woman standing before him. She looked a little confused and moved to try and get into his line of sight.

"Well, I'll pick you up tomorrow night at 8, is that all right?" She asked, still trying to get him to notice her and smiling at his nervousness. At last he looked up at her and nodded.

"Yeah, sure, that's fine." He agreed. Tifa smirked and walked through the checkpoint and towards the elevator.

"Damn," he thought to himself, there was absolutely no way he could have just made a bigger ass of himself in front of Tifa.

"Way to go, slick." Randy said, giving Cloud a sarcastic pat on the shoulder.

- - - - -

"So…what's he like?" Aeris asked eagerly, lying on her stomach with her knees bent and her feet crossed in the air, resting on her plush king-sized bed with the phone stuck to her ear.

"He's nice, he took care of me the night that _you_ abandoned me at Dad's work." Tifa responded, bitterly. She loved Aeris to death but couldn't stand the fact that her friend had abandoned her on a number of occasions.

"Yeah…sorry about that, _again_, Teef, but I couldn't take you to my house or my step-mom would flip!" Aeris countered, trying to excuse her behavior and abandonment. "So what, how'd he find you?"

Tifa didn't know how to respond to her friend. She couldn't tell her that Cloud was a security guard, or even that he was poor. If she did, they'd say she was "slumming it" and ban Cloud from the party. Tifa wasn't even sure why she had invited him, or what she why she had been thinking about him since she first woke up in his apartment. She was lying on her back, staring at the ceiling with her cell phone propped against her ear, as she had been for hours.

"He was…uh…there picking up a folder for his dad. His dad has a seat on the board." She lied, hoping Aeris would accept it.

"Oh. Cool. So he's hot?" Aeris questioned, hoping that this new guy to the party scene would be someone she could smuggle away from Tifa. Tifa hesitated before answering the question.

"Yeah." She said, not wanting him to sound too attractive or she knew that Aeris would crowd him.

"Sweet, so are you like…with him?" Aeris prodded further.

"No! Of course not, I just met him." Tifa stated without hesitation.

"Awesome, well, I'll see you tonight babe." Aeris said before hanging up quickly.

"Damn," Tifa thought to herself, there was absolutely no way she would be able to pry Aeris away from Cloud that night.

But then again, did she want to? She felt like she was being possessive of the man she had only known for a week, and worse yet, he was a security guard. If she were developing feelings for him…her father would have a heart attack.

- - - - -

He spent his entire day Saturday practicing how he would act at the party. He worked on his conversation pieces, his greetings even a few jokes in front of the mirror. His hair had been spiked just right, as perfect as he could possibly get it considering the mess it usually was.

His outfit was simple, a pair of low hanging blue jeans held up by a studded belt and a dark blue polo with the collar turned up. He tied a hemp necklace around his neck and slipped a reggae wristband on his forearm. He wore a pairs of black skate shoes and sprayed some of his favorite cologne.

He hadn't even been on a date in months, he was surprised he could even try and look so good. He checked himself out in the mirror and smiled suavely. He pointed at himself and smirked.

"Heyyy…" He said, as cool as possible.

He cleaned up his apartment for when Tifa arrived to pick him up. He tried to imagine what she would wear to this party, remembering what she wore to the last one. He sat on the couch and looked at his watch anxiously. Only 6:30, he couldn't believe that he had already showered and gotten ready so early. He laid his head back on the pillow and stared at the ceiling.

If all went well tonight, maybe Tifa would notice him. It was clear to him that she already did know that he existed, but maybe she could like him. He closed his eyes and day dreamed about holding her in his arms, not while she was drunk, but while she was alert, holding her against his chest tightly, protecting her from whatever could possibly harm her. He was awoken from his thoughts by a constant, rapid knocking on his front door.

He jumped up to open the door and could have passed from the aura of beauty that stood in front of him like a descendant of the heavens. Tifa stood before him; looking like a carved statue of a goddess, perfect emanating from her skin. She wore a white miniskirt with slits up both sides and a white bikini halter-top with a ring between her breasts. She was made three inches taller by the light brown heels she had on. Around her neck she had a necklace made of shells and several silver bracelets and anklets. Her hair was thick and straightened, softly caressing her shoulders and bare back.

Cloud was left speechless as he stared at her, still unable to believe that such a woman was standing at his doorstep. She some of her hair off of her shoulder and ran her fingers atop her head, getting rid of the part. She smiled as he stared, accustomed to men being hypnotized by her beauty.

"Ready to go handsome?" She said, eyeing him up and down. Cloud couldn't even find the strength to speak, but did manage to move his head to show her what he wanted to say. Tifa reached for his hand and pulled him behind her as she ran for her car. "Come on, I don't bite!" She exclaimed as she led him from his apartment.

Her car was, as he would have guessed, one of the most expensive sports cars in the world. Low enough to pass under a semi-truck and almost short enough for Cloud to step up onto the roof. It's curves equaled Tifa's perfection and its bright yellow color accented her charismatic personality. Cloud got in cautiously, waiting for his bubble to explode.

"What's wrong?" Tifa asked, glancing over at Cloud as she sped towards the party. "Have you _ever_ done anything fun?" She laughed.

Cloud did too but he reflected on his life and how he could never have imagined when he was a child that one day he would be sitting in an expensive car with the woman of his dreams beside him, and heading to one of the most glamorous parties in the world.

"Not like this." He responded. Tifa looked at him as if he were homeless. She had known nothing but luxury her whole life, and it was a difficult concept for her to grasp that not everyone grew up the way that she did.

"What did you do when you were a child?" She asked, hoping that maybe he had a wonderful childhood.

"I dreamed about moments like this." Cloud stated, smiling.

"Can I tell you something?" Tifa asked, suddenly becoming serious. Cloud nodded and stared at her with sincerity in his eyes. "Sometimes I wish that I could be like you." Cloud nearly swallowed his tongue and wondered if he had heard correctly.

"You…want to be like _me_?" He repeated. He couldn't believe that she could possibly want to be like him when she had everything in the world. "Why? I have to work for a living, I have bills to pay, I have no time to party or have fun, why would you want that?" Tifa looked over at him for a moment, looking into his eyes to let him know that she was dead serious.

"I want to be normal, simple. I don't want to go to parties every night and deal with the people there, I don't want to get drunk and abandoned with some person I don't know, no offense." She added, putting her hand on his leg and quickly removing it. Cloud's gaze fell to his knee, where she had touched him, and lingered there while she spoke. "What does it feel like…to wake up every morning and not have to impress anyone?"

Cloud thought for a moment. In the back of his mind he felt as though she were making fun of him in some strange way. He didn't know how he woke up every morning, he never thought about it. He didn't know how to answer so he just answered with another question.

"How does it feel to wake up and have everything?" He asked her. He could tell that she hadn't expected that and was caught off guard.

"I don't know…I feel empty, like there's something…missing in my life." She said, glancing over at him.

She didn't mean to look at him so obviously. She felt that she had given him an almost desperate look, concluding that he was missing in her life. Any man that would take care of her as he did and not take advantage of her was exactly the kind of man she was looking for. She wanted someone that didn't care that she was gorgeous or rich; she wanted someone that just wanted to be with her.

"Well I feel the same way when I wake up. There's something missing in my life too. You see, there's not really a difference between us, we think and feel the same way…" He trailed off, trying not to sound like some sappy movie character.

Tifa stayed quiet for the remainder of the drive, thinking about what he had said. He made a good point. The only difference between her and "normal" people was the amount of money they had. And Cloud was missing something too…what could he be missing? Was it the same thing she was? She finally pulled into a large mansion driveway on the upper plate and parked.

"We're here." She announced, as if Cloud didn't already know.

He stepped out of the car and was once again in awe as he stood before the largest house he had ever seen. It was two stories tall, with large white pillars reaching in front of it like claws protecting it. It looked like something out of a movie, with perfect landscaping and a long, circular driveway with a fountain in the middle. The steps leading up to it were light colored stone, and the front yard was perfectly manicured with square-cut shrubs lining the front walkway.

Tifa again reached for his hand and dragged him behind her as she ran up the steps in a much better mood than in the car. She rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer. Cloud could hear the raging music from inside and saw the wealthy dancing through the uncovered windows. The door finally opened and a pretty girl curly light-brown hair stood inside the doorway, smiling and greeting both Tifa and Cloud.

She wore loose pink cargo Capri's and a white tank top that showed off her cleavage and her midriff with a maroon corduroy short jacket that hung just below her breasts. She looked Cloud up and down and grinned.

"Well hello there. Tifa said you were hot, but not _this_ hot!" The girl screeched, drunkenly as she grabbed Cloud by the arm and pulled him away from Tifa, whose face turned beat red at her friend's comment.

Cloud couldn't believe what he had just heard. Tifa had called him hot? What did that mean? Maybe that word meant something different to the rich and famous, but he couldn't doubt that her friend must have had a thing for him, because of the way she clung to him, introducing him to every group at the party and acting as though she had been the one to discover him.

Tifa couldn't help but feel a little jealous after seeing Aeris pull Cloud away. She had been the one to bring him to the party, and admitted to herself that she did have some feelings for the pokey headed blonde. And seeing him with Aeris just confirmed that she wanted him to be around _her_ and no one else.

"Oh god," she thought to herself, she had fallen for the security guard. She wished that she hadn't, but there was nothing she could do about it now. From the moment she first laid eyes on him at his apartment, and realized that he had not violated her. Knowing that he had taken care of her in her debilitated state.

She watched as Cloud and Aeris disappeared into the crowd, thinking that she had just lost her chance with him and imagining how long it would take for Aeris to get him into a bedroom with her. Tifa hung her head and walked over to the kitchen where a game of beer pong had been set up on a door that had been removed from its hinges. The players on each team were cheering and obviously already wasted, playing the game just for more fun. Tifa hopped up onto the island counter and looked around the room, watching the party rage out of control, as was the norm.

She didn't notice a seedy redhead staring at her from across the room. He had come to the party from an outing with his parents, and he still wore his blue suit, but had unbuttoned the jacket and the top half of his white dress shirt underneath. His sunglasses were still on top of his head from earlier that day, but he didn't seem to notice, too drunk to care. He stumbled over to Tifa as suavely as he could, and leaned against the counter beside her, his face close to her thigh.

"Wanna drink?" He asked.

Tifa nodded her head, too lost in thought to even hear him speak, or watch as he dropped a little white pill into her glass. He returned with her drink and handed it to her. She took it quickly and drained it in one long chug. She just wanted to forget Cloud at that point, and tried to forget the fact that he would probably end up with Aeris by the end of the night.

She loved her friend dearly, but it had always been a game to Aeris, ever since middle school, to see who could win over a guy first. She even kept a score in an old notebook, but Tifa had never seen it. As far as she knew Aeris was winning by a landslide, but it didn't really matter. Tifa hadn't found the guy she was after, so whether she got a guy or didn't never really bothered her. But now…with Cloud, she could feel her heart pang with anguish. Her world seemed to be blurring with her newfound jealousy. She tried to shake her head to focus, but for some reason she couldn't.

- - - - -

Aeris closed the door behind her and leaned against it, looking at Cloud with drunken lust in her eyes. Cloud turned around and noticed her stare, but was confused as to whether it was the alcohol or her that was feeling that way.

She strolled over to him and removed her jacket, throwing it to the side and then bringing her arms around his neck and began kissing his shoulders. Cloud looked towards the door and hoped that he would be rescued. He didn't want to get caught into having sex with a woman he had no feelings for. He knew that if he went through with it, he would lose Tifa. He didn't have much knowledge about women, but he did know that sleeping with their best friend was a definite relationship killer. But on the other hand, if he didn't, he would probably be disgracing the other partiers. He weighed his options, and put his hands on the girl's shoulders.

"No." He stated, holding her back.

It didn't seem to phase her much; in fact, it seemed to fuel her hormones. She jumped up onto him and wrapped her legs around his waist, ravishing his lips with her kisses and knocking him back onto the bed. He tried his best not to kiss back but she eventually forced her tongue into his mouth and began to remove his shirt. Again he tried to protest, but she managed to get his undershirt off as well. He wanted to push her off, but she had him pinned to the bed, and if he shoved her he could injure her, which might have infuriated her and possibly ended his life right then and there if she grabbed some of the other guys at the party that were bigger than him.

She sat up and removed her own shirt and bra. Cloud tried his best not to look at her, but she forced his face towards her chest. He closed his eyes tightly and tried to wait it out. He couldn't believe that this was happening, he wanted to get back to Tifa, he didn't want anything to go on between her friend and him. He didn't want it to get back to Tifa that he would do anything with her friend, and he knew how girls talked. According to Aeris, _he_ would be the one that made a move on her and seduced her.

"Please. No." He said again when she let him lean back on the bed. She rubbed his chest and kissed his neck softly.

"Why? You know you want this." She stated, continuing as if he had said nothing.

It was true, Cloud hadn't been with a woman for several months, and he had to admit he wouldn't mind, but he had developed eyes for Tifa, and couldn't let himself get carried away with any other girl in his path. A lesser man might have taken Aeris for fun, but he couldn't do that to the girl, he just wasn't like that.

- - - - -

Tifa was still conscious but dizzy when she started to realize that she had been drugged. She couldn't call for help because any man who saw her in that condition would have his way with her, so she was trapped, on a counter, next to a man who would probably do with her as he pleased.

She knew him too; his father was a Turk, a lackey for her father's company. They took care of all the dirty work that Shinra needed done. She never understood exactly what that "dirty work" was, but she knew that whenever the Turks arrived, something bad would happen.

Reno was training to become a Turk, which in her mind made him twice as dangerous as any other man at the party. She replayed in her head when he had asked her for a drink, wishing she could turn back time and pay attention to him so that she could have said no.

She couldn't scream as he began to kiss her thigh and work his way up to her lips, his hands finding places on her body to touch that she would never have allowed. She looked up at the ceiling and felt tears stream down her cheeks. She couldn't feel her legs, and the numbness was beginning to travel up her body. She knew what this drug did, she had had friends who were given this drug and raped.

She knew that soon she would lose all her ability to move, to speak, to escape. She had to act fast if she would be able to save herself, she was already leaning against him, unable to fight him off of her, or even feel his hands exploring her.

At any other party she would have been doomed, but she remembered that she had brought Cloud with her. He was her only chance out of this nightmare, and she wasn't even sure he would come rescue her. He may have taken care of her once, but that could have just been an act. Maybe this time he would take advantage of her. But still, he was her only hope.

With her last ounce of strength she screamed his name over and over again, startling Reno and everyone else at the party, who turned to see who was getting "it" on in the kitchen. Most promptly rushed over to cheer Reno on for what he was about to do to the luckiest catch of the party. All the guys there always dreamed of drugging her and taking her with them, but most knew the consequences of what would happen if she woke up and remembered them. Daddy Shinra was the most powerful man in the world; he could have any person on the planet erased from history if he wanted to. It was best to just leave her be and hope that she would choose them for a night. Most followed her to parties hoping for that very scenario, but it wouldn't happen. Tifa may have seemed like a party girl, but the truth was that she was saving herself for a man she truly cared about.

- - - - -

Aeris had each of her hands holding Cloud's wrists above his head on the bed. He was still squirming, trying to get away without using force or hurting her. He wanted so badly to get out of that bedroom and tell Tiffany what had happened, before she heard a lie from her own best friend. He was about ready to give up trying to be nice or gentle when dismissing the young lady sitting on him, when he was given his chance to escape.

"CLOUD!" He heard a desperate voice call from downstairs.

He heard the screams over and over again and finally pushed Aeris off of him and to the ground, stunning the beauty and being the first man to reject her. She watched him bitterly run from the room, having not heard her friend's cries for help.

Cloud rushed down the hallway and stairs, leaping over the final few and pushing his way through the crowded living room, trying to follow where the screams had come from. He had never heard such terror in a person's voice before, and he knew that something was very, very wrong.

Forgetting that he had no shirt, or that his pants were partially unbuttoned, he jumped up onto a couch and looked for Tifa, but was pushed out of the way by some dancing bodies who were trying to get their space back. Cloud started looking around frantically for Tifa, wondering what could be happening to her, or if she were just looking for him.

He finally shoved his way into the front foyer and looked into the kitchen. There, on the kitchen counter, he could see a man trying to force himself onto Tifa, and she seemed to be sitting there like a rag doll. She wasn't even fighting the man but her face was filled with disgust and fear.

The last thing Tifa saw was Cloud, running up to her half-naked. Everything was incredibly blurry, and she could barely think straight, but she knew where he had been and with who and what they had been doing. Suddenly her perfect evening was ruined, she was going to be raped, and the only man who could save her had just been with her best friend. She saw him pull his fist back and drive it into Reno's face, sending the up-and-coming Turk flying backwards.

With Reno lying on the floor with a busted jaw, Cloud ran over to Tifa, who had slumped over and was about to fall off of the counter. Cloud tried to reach her in time but was grabbed from behind by one of Reno's friends, a taller man with a shaved head. He held Cloud long enough for Reno to get up and punch him in the nose, drawing blood. Cloud took the beating, watching out of the corner of his eye as Tifa fell onto the tile floor, in a mass of flesh.

He fought against the man holding him as Reno continued to pummel him in the chest. Aeris had followed him and helped get the crowd cheering as Reno slammed his fists into Cloud's abdomen. He finally stomped his heel onto the man's toes and was released. He punched Reno into the other counters while his friend held his foot in pain and was able to get to Tifa.

As he reached under her to pick her up, he felt the shock of a stun gun being stabbed into his side and screamed out in pain. He decided to stop trying to defend himself and found Tiffany's keys in her purse that she was still holding. He stood up and smashed Reno in the face one more time into the crowd. He then scooped Tifa into his arms and ran from the house before Reno had time to retaliate.

He dashed down the driveway and unlocked Tifa's car, trying his best to set her inside before Reno and his friends caught up to him. The entire party had chased them out of the house, eager to watch a major fight ensue between the new guy and Reno. Reno grabbed Cloud from behind and slammed his head against the roof of Tifa's car. Cloud elbowed him in the gut and quickly got inside the safety of the vehicle and locked the doors.

Reno smashed the driver's side window as Cloud was backing the car out. Again he used the stun gun, but got Cloud in the face, leaving a burn mark on the young man's jaw. Cloud turned the car sharply and threw Reno off, causing him to land on his backside on the pavement. Cloud sped away before the angry redhead could catch him again and breathed a sigh of relief. He looked in the rear view mirror just long enough to catch a glimpse of the Turk behind him pull out a gun, the bullet smashing the back window and traveling through the front. Cloud slammed the gas pedal to the ground and turned a corner, hoping to finally end his nightmare and head for the "safety" of the lower plate.


	4. Lying To A Friend

Author's Note: A nice chapter this should turn out to be. I'm going to keep pushing for reviews for this story and Victim, I just don't see how someone can read a story, enjoy it, but not review. Victim has had over 300 hits since it first aired. 300 hits SHOULD, in my opinion equal out to 300 reviews, but I guess I'll just stick with the fact that it has more hits than any of my other stories.

- - - - -

There was a ringing in her ears that just would not stop. She wasn't sure if it was the after-effects of the drug she had been given the night before, or something else. She focused her eyes to look at the room around her. She knew this place, she hadn't been raped, and she was safe. She was in Cloud's room; he had come to rescue her just as she had hoped he would.

But her memory started regaining little bits of knowledge about the party up until the point where she blacked out. Cloud was…running towards her…he wasn't wearing a shirt and his pants were unbuttoned. "That's right," Tifa thought to herself, "he was with Aeris."

She could almost feel tears in her eyes as she thought about the chance she had lost. She had finally met a guy she could connect with, a guy that was different from any that she had ever met, and she lost him to her best friend. It wasn't like she could be angry with Aeris; she had told her that she wasn't with Cloud, which to Aeris was an open invitation.

The ringing continued and she finally answered her phone. The voice on the other end was that of her best friend, but she was in distress. Her breathing was erratic and she was crying heavily. Tifa tried to calm her down as best she could, knowing that something must have happened to her at the party as well.

"Aeris just calm down, tell me what happened." She cooed, fearing what her friend might say.

"Where are you?" Aeris managed to huff, hanging on Tifa's every word like it was her last chance at life.

"I'm at Cloud's house; he rescued me last night, why?" Tifa asked, a twist forming in the pit of her stomach, as Aeris burst into a louder set of tears. Tifa waited for her friend to calm down and answer her.

"He…he…" Aeris trailed, more upset than she had ever been in her entire life.

"He what? Who?" Tifa prodded, hoping that Cloud hadn't done anything to hurt her friend.

"He used me!" Aeris shouted, screeching as she did so.

Tifa couldn't believe what she had just heard. Aeris couldn't possibly be telling the truth, Tifa had seen her drag _Cloud_ away from the party. Cloud would never have done anything with Aeris if he hadn't done so when he had the chance with her, right? Did Aeris have something that she didn't?

She couldn't believe she was jealous of Cloud taking _advantage_ of Aeris and not her. It was a terrible thing for him to do, and not something she should wish upon herself. But she still didn't quite believe that Aeris was being truthful, not after the way she dragged Cloud away.

"What do you mean? Aeris?" Tifa questioned.

"Tifa…I have to tell you something. Remember that notebook I keep to see which one of us gets more guys?" Aeris asked between whimpers.

"Yeah, you're winning." Tifa stated with less than enthusiasm in her voice.

"No, I'm not!" Aeris cried, breaking into another onset of tears. "I was never winning, I lied! And I just wanted so badly to get Cloud; I just wanted to win one guy over you…for once." She sobbed, taking Tifa's breath away. "I dragged him away so that he couldn't be around you, and I took him into a bedroom to get away from everyone. I didn't want to sleep with him, I just wanted to try and talk to him…to convince him that I'm just as good as you. I told him I liked him and…he jumped on me!"

Tifa's heart sunk. Cloud wasn't the man she thought he was. If Aeris had admitted about the notebook, she couldn't be lying about Cloud, why else what she tell Tifa she was winning?

"Aeris…are you…sure?" Tifa asked, feeling tears in her eyes. She just didn't want to believe that Cloud was not everything she had imagined him to be.

"Why would I lie about this?" Aeris screamed, more upset than ever. "He tried to seduce me and when I heard you call his name I pushed him off and told him to go to you!"

Tears streamed down Tifa's face as she tried to comprehend what she had just heard. Cloud had used her best friend, but if that was the truth, why did he rush to save her? But then again, why would Aeris lie about the notebook? Tifa was confused, but she had to admit that Aeris' story did sound plausible.

"I mean…if you still like Cloud that's okay…I just…thought you should know…"Aeris whimpered, now holding back her tears.

"No of course not!" Tifa exclaimed, "Not after what he did to you!" Her words seemed to sooth Aeris, who sniffled.

"Okay, well I just had to call you, but I have to go…"She spoke more easily now, the fear and pain in her voice no longer audible.

"Okay, are you gonna be all right?" Tifa asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I think so." Aeris mustered.

"All right then, take care sweetie." Tifa said before hanging up.

Again she felt like she was in a stranger's home. Cloud now seemed like a totally different person to her, someone she didn't know, and it frightened her. Was he planning something with her? And even if he wasn't, how could he be so cruel to Aeris?

She got out of bed and silently walked over to the closet and grabbed the same boot she had taken with her the first time she woke up in his apartment. She inched her way out of the bedroom, checking down the hallway before moving out to the living room, where Cloud was asleep.

He was still so gorgeous to her, and she couldn't believe that he could actually do something so vindictive. And to her friend nonetheless, a girl he had just met. She looked down at his sleeping form and raised the boot above her head, poised to strike. She waited until he rolled over onto his back, then fired the shoe at his chest, striking his heart and immediately waking him.

Cloud jolted at the sudden object flying at him. He shot up as if the sky was falling and saw Tifa standing behind the couch looking as though she could kill him. There was fire in her beautiful eyes, and he had no idea why. She placed her hands on her hips and glared at him.

"What did you do to her, you sick fuck!" She screamed, while Cloud's eyes widened as they never had before.

He suddenly knew what had happened, it was exactly what he feared would. Aeris had lied, and worse yet, Tifa believed her. He quickly stood up and reached his arms out to her, just as had the first time she threatened him with the shoe. He didn't know how to explain what happened, how he could convince her otherwise; after all, she had known Aeris longer.

"Nothing, I didn't do anything to her! She pulled me into that room and jumped on me!" He exclaimed, desperately hoping that she would believe him. Instead she remained still, shaking her head.

"No…you used her. You broke her heart! How could you do that?" She cried, rolling her fingers into a fist and squeezing them tightly against her legs. She didn't want Cloud to see how badly this was hurting her; she couldn't let him know that she was devastated to have to stand up for Aeris.

"I didn't! You saw her pull me away! How can you not believe me?" Cloud begged, trying to get her to focus on his eyes so that she could see that he was being sincere.

"How can you lie? I thought you were different than other guys!" Tifa screeched, and then lowered her shoulders and her head as the tears began to form in the corner of her eyes. "But I guess you're not…" She trailed off, wishing that none of this had ever happened.

"I'm not lying, Tifa. She jumped on me, I…I didn't want to hurt her by pushing her away, so I told her to stop, but she kept after me, but when I heard you screaming I finally pushed her." Cloud said, lowering his voice, hoping that Tifa would understand.

"I can't believe you!" Tifa started screaming again, "I _saw_ you run up to me with your shirt off and your pants unbuttoned!" Cloud shook his head, his eyebrows angling across his eyes as if her were about to cry.

"_She_ did that!" He yelled, angry with Aeris for doing this to him, he saw it coming, but hoped that he could have told Tifa the truth first, before she heard the lie.

"How could she get your shirt off unless you went along with it? Or if you took it off yourself?" She continued to wail, waving her arms wildly as she spoke.

"I told you, I didn't want to hurt her, if I didn't let her take my shirt off, she would have ripped it off!" Cloud was getting so upset as he spoke; he too made a fist, and prepared to smash a wall if he couldn't convince her soon.

"Right, so you just let her take your shirt off?" Tifa asked, cynically. Cloud nodded.

"Look, I promise you on my mother's grave, that nothing happened and that I didn't abuse her. Please, you have to believe me…" He pleaded, looking up at the ceiling for a moment.

"I don't believe you." Tifa stated, turning her back on him so that he could not see her tears. He was making this much more difficult than she had expected. She just couldn't accept his story, not after what Aeris had told her. "Why should I believe you?" She questioned, without looking at him.

"Because I'm in love with you!" Cloud confessed, raising his voice once again. Tifa didn't turn to face him, and he couldn't see the small smile that broke across her lips, but quickly faded. After her smile withered, she turned around.

"What?" She asked, knowing full well what he had said.

He loved her. And even if he had just met her, it still felt good to hear someone say that and perhaps actually mean it. She wanted to believe him, she wanted to so badly, but she just couldn't accept the fact that Aeris' story did sound more believable, if nothing else because of the fact that Cloud's shirt had been taken off. If he didn't want her to advance on him, there would have been no way for her to get his shirt off. Tifa wished that there was some other explanation, but she just couldn't find one.

"I'm in love with you. God, I have been since I first saw you. I haven't been able to stop thinking about you since I met you, couldn't you see that?" His tone was harsh, but his words were comforting. He sighed gruffly and turned his head to the side, flaring his nostrils in defeat.

Tifa couldn't let her emotions get the best of her. She couldn't forgive him for what he had done, no matter how sincere he sounded. He was a jerk, a lowlife, and could never forget that. She swallowed her heart and glared at him once again, breathing heavily in anger.

"You just met me you creep! And if that were true, why the hell were you with Aeris?" She began screaming again.

"I wasn't with her!" Cloud roared, more forceful than he had ever been in his life. He pulled back his fist and slammed it into the nearest wall, opening up the plaster to the hollow inside. Tifa stepped back in horror.

"That's it, I'm done with this. Have a nice life!" She shrieked before rushing out of the apartment.

Cloud froze for a moment. What had just happened hadn't even registered in his mind yet and she was gone. He looked at the ground, searching it for some kind of answer. He had just confessed to one of the most dangerously guarded women on earth that he loved her. He had never said that to _anyone_ in his entire life, especially not to someone he hadn't even known for more than a week.

A moment later he heard the loudest cry he could have ever imagined. He covered his ears and closed his eyes tightly until it stopped, then looked around his apartment to check if anything was broken. He quickly ran to the parking lot, knowing what had caused the sudden outcry.

Tifa stood frozen and shaking on the sidewalk, staring at her smashed up car. There was a large dent in the roof, and the rear and driver's side windows were shattered and there was a bullet hole in the front window, causing the glass to crack around it, like a spider's web. She felt as though she would pass out, and Cloud caught her just before her legs gave out beneath her. She quickly regained her balance and shoved him away as hard as she could. He flew backwards and landed hard on the pavement on his backside.

"Don't touch me!" She growled, watching him as he fell. "What…what did you do to my car?" She screeched, walking around the broken vehicle trying to assess the damage.

"That guy…the one who drugged you…there was a fight. He shot your car." Cloud informed her. She pivoted on her heel and turned an accusing finger at him.

"This is all your fault! Don't you _ever_ come near me again!" She cried, before getting into her car and slamming the door, knocking the few remaining pieces of glass that were hanging on the edges to the ground. She groaned venomously and started the car, backing out quickly and peeling out of the parking lot, leaving Cloud in a puff of smoke.

He coughed and waved his hand in front of his face to clear the smoke. He watched as her car rapidly dissipated from his sight. He couldn't even begin to remember what had led him to that point. Everything seemed as though it were a blur, and all he knew was that she had just driven out of his life.

- - - - -

As hard as it was, he prepared to go to work as if nothing had happened. He knew that he would have to answer a million questions from Barret and the others, but he was ready to shrug them off and do his job. As soon as he walked through the door however, he was confronted by his large boss.

"So how was your weekend?" He asked sardonically.

"Interesting." Cloud answered, moving past Barret to his station, avoiding eye contact with all the other employees.

"So what happened?" Randy inquired eagerly. Cloud gave him a glance to let him know that he should just drop the subject, but he continued to stare at the blonde man. At last Cloud sighed, showing his disdain.

"Nothing. It was a party. That's all." He groaned. Randy leaned toward the others who were crowded around him and put a hand in front of his face to block Cloud from the conversation.

"Looks like someone got dismissed." He jibed. Cloud had to hold back the desire to punch him in the face.

The rest of the night seemed to carry on that way. There was a lot of silence when Cloud would turn his back towards his co-workers and ignore their questions or taunts. He watched the front door until the sun began to rise above the horizon, casting its orange hue across the tile floor in the lobby.

He waited for her. He was hoping that she would show up before he had to leave. He didn't even watch any other people wander into work, and didn't check a single person's I.D. He didn't even realize that he had been recognized by the redheaded Turk as he checked into the building on his way to work with his father.

The gears turned in Reno's head as he plotted his revenge against they spiky haired blonde that had ruined his party the night before. For him it was just part of desensitizing himself in order to become a Turk. He also couldn't wait to see the look on the blonde's face when his world came crashing down around him. No one shows up Reno and gets away with it. No one.

Cloud glanced at his watch for the millionth time. Twenty minutes until his shift ended. Even if Tifa never came in, at least he could escape the torrent of quips being made about him behind his back, or the stares he was getting from his co-workers as they watched him suffer.

When it was finally time to go, Cloud gathered up his things and punched out. He wanted to just race out of the door and lock himself in his apartment and never come out. For what he had lost in the past day he felt that he just wouldn't be able to move on. As he was heading for the door a group of men stepped out of the elevator.

The lead man wore an exceptionally expensive gray three-piece suit with white pinstripes. His dress shoes were immaculate and made of the finest leather money could by. He had a perfectly pressed and folded red pocket square inside his lapel and a matching red silk tie. His black hair was styled back with nary a hair out of place and only the sides showing the gray of his age. He looked to be in his early fifties, the wrinkles on his face the only telltale signs. He marched toward the young blonde with clenched fists and vehemence in his eyes.

The men behind him were all dressed alike. Each wore a steel blue suit with a white dress shirt and black tie. They were each well groomed and important looking. The other employees knew what their presence meant and quickly leapt out of their way for fear of receiving their repercussions. Reno was right on the leaders heels, wearing his suit unbuttoned just as he had at the party. To his left was his bald friend who had helped him hold Cloud down during the fight. Behind him were several of the senior Turks, including his father.

"That's him, right there!" Reno called, pointing at Cloud.

Cloud turned around at the sound of the commotion, recognizing Reno's voice. He saw the group of Turks heading straight for him, along with an incredibly important looking individual.

"Mr. President!" Barret shouted, standing at attention and saluting his boss.

Cloud wished that someone would just shoot him right then and there. The man coming at him was the President of Shinra, and Tifa's father. With Reno behind him Cloud knew that this meeting would not turn out favorably. He couldn't run, running would have only made things worse. The man in front of him was the most powerful person on earth, he could have Cloud obliterated at the drop of a hat. His eyes widened in horror as the President drew back his fist and drove it straight into Cloud's already sore nose.

"You dirty son of a bitch!" The President roared as he kicked Cloud in the chest as he bent over in pain, holding his nose.

"Mr. President…" Cloud wanted to ask what Reno had said, but was dealt another blow to the gut by Reno's mag rod, which was the same instrument Cloud had thought to be a stun gun the night prior.

"You worthless, two-bit, drugging piece of shit!" The President barked, watching as the other Turks began to beat Cloud into submission. "You're fired!" He added, yelling at the top of his lungs. He had never been so full of anger as he had at that moment. If he could have he would have had Cloud killed, but since he had been so taken over by his anger that he let it out in his office, he couldn't have the boy killed, it would be too obvious. "Get him out of my sight!" And with that, he returned to the elevator and back up to his office.

After a few more devastating blows from the Turks, Rude and Reno's father each grabbed one of Cloud's arms while the others follow, and dragged him through one of the pairs of double doors and out into the street, where they threw him to the pavement and returned to the building. About a moment later, Tifa walked up the front doors, not even noticing Cloud's badly beaten form lying in the gutter, and entered Shinra Inc.

She couldn't ignore the pool of blood that was standing in the middle of the front lobby, or the look of shock on the employee's faces as she walked in. She watched as a janitor rushed out of nowhere toward the puddle and eagerly mopped it up, trying to make it appear as though it had never existed.

She looked at all the late night security guards for answers. Cloud wasn't there, and she couldn't help but feel a sinking sensation in her gut. She sought out Barret and stood beside him as she watched the other workers slowly get back to work as usual.

"What happened?" She asked the black man that towered beside her. He looked down at her over his broad shoulder and sighed.

"They took care of him. I'm so sorry he tried to hurt you." He said.

Barret couldn't believe what he had just witnessed, nor could any of the other staff. He couldn't believe that Cloud, his own employee had tried to drug the heiress to the Shinra fortune. But one can't judge a book by its cover, Cloud appeared to be a genuine guy, but everyone was so wrong.

"What do you mean?" Tifa questioned, looking up at Barret, confused.

"Didn't he try to drug you?" It was Barret's turn to be confused. Tifa shook her head.

"No, that was Reno. Is that what this is all about?" Tifa couldn't help but feel guilty. She had just ripped at Cloud's throat the day before, and now her father wanted him dead, what a rough time he was having. But she tried not to feel sorry for him, after all, he got what he deserved for what he did to Aeris.

"I knew Cloud couldn't have done something so stupid. He's a good kid, huh?"

"I guess…" Tifa lied, covering up her own emotions. Without another word she turned towards the elevator and was gone. As much as it killed her inside, she didn't ask if Cloud was alright, or look to see where he was, or even talk to her father. She was just too hurt by what he had done.


	5. Avoiding Your Truth

Author's Note: Wow, sorry it's been so long, but this chapter was held captive at my parent's house in Massachusetts while I'm going to college here in Florida. But I finally rescued it and now I've posted it. Enjoy. If you haven't guessed by now, the chapter titles of this story parallel the chapter titles of Barfly. This, if it ever gets published, will be known as The Dragonfly Parallel. Anyway, this chapter should turn out interesting. That's all I have to say. Review Damn it! Why can't people review? If you like it, say so, if you hate it, say so. It's not that difficult a concept to grasp.

* * *

Tifa Lockheart paced back and forth frantically in her office. Each step stretched out her brown hound's-tooth patterned mini skirt that clung to her thighs. She had on a matching jacket and button-up vest with a deep aqua colored dress shirt underneath. Her high-heeled brown boots hugged her legs and reached up to her knees as she pivoted her heel to turn around and continue her pacing.

She couldn't make up her mind whether she should tell her father that he was mistaken. As angry at Cloud as she might be, she couldn't let his life be ruined because of Reno's lie. On the other hand, Reno had already tried to harm her, if she called his bluff he might do something more sinister to her, and Cloud wouldn't be around to save her if he did so. It figured, she finally finds a man that had feelings for her before he even knew who she was, and there just has to be something wrong with him. She had spent years looking for a man that didn't care how much money she had, or that she was the daughter of the most powerful man on the planet, he only cared about her. But of course such a man couldn't be for real, there always had to be a catch.

She was relieved to hear the intercom on her desk buzz, and she rushed to answer it. The voice on the other end was harsh, she recognized her father's tone, and her eyes widened at what he said.

"Tifa, would you be so kind as to bring the plans for the new Reactor into the meeting hall. We have been waiting."

She had forgotten all about the meeting. She knew what the other employees at Shinra thought she did with her time, but she also knew that they were all rumors made up by the workers in their spare time. Fantasies, at best, created to pass the time and indulge in what they could never have. No matter what they thought of her, she knew what her job was. It was true, that she was there somewhat as eye candy to give the investors, almost exclusively men, yet another reason to give President Shinra money. It was a well-known fact that men would do just about anything just to be in the presence of a beautiful woman.

But that was not her only job. As a child she had always had an interest in designing buildings and other structures. Her father noticed her talent and paid good money for her degree. There were very few people in the world that knew that she had gone to college, or that she had graduated at the top of her class for that matter, but it was of little importance to anyone who met her. She could be the smartest person in the world, but no one could ever get past her looks and see her brains.

She rushed out of her office with the cards that had the plans printed on them, cursing herself for letting her personal life interfere with her work. Her father's tone could only mean that she would surely hear about her negligence the first chance that he had a moment.

Her mind had still not focused on what she was about to do when she reached the meeting room. Her face showed an expression of guilt and listlessness as she set up the poster boards with rough drawings of the new reactor to be built in Gonganga as a replacement to the malfunctioning one that current existed.

"Sorry I'm late." She huffed as she scrambled to place the cards. When she had finished setting up, she turned to face the table of twenty businessmen waiting for any word to come out of her perfect lips. "The current reactor will be torn down to make way for our brand new, state-of-the-art Mako generator. It will be far less pollutant and create dozens more jobs in order to jump-start the economy of Gonganga."

"Tifa, can I speak with you?" President Shinra asked once the meeting was over and the conference room was empty. Tifa swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded, preparing for the impending conversation. "What happened this weekend? Why didn't you tell me that one of my employee's harassed you?" Her father questioned, brushing the hair out of her face as he did so.

"Because I thought of the consequences." Tifa answered, hanging her head and looking away from her father's gaze.

"What possible ramifications can come from firing a worthless security guard?" Her father smirked.

Tifa took a deep breathe and closed her eyes before looking her father in the eyes. The only way to get Reno out of the same building as her would be to tell her father the truth, but how sure could she be that she would be safe after she did so?

"Because Cloud isn't the one you should have fired…it was Reno." She said, giving her father a look of deep sincerity. Her father narrowed his eyes and looked for a sign of something other than the truth. He took a step back and shook his head when his daughter's facial expression did not change.

"What do you mean? Didn't that security guard try to harm you?"

"No, Papa. Reno lied. I took Cloud -the security guard- to a party with me. Reno slipped something into my drink, but Cloud kept him away and took me home with him. Cloud only tried to help me…" Tifa trailed…trying to hide her emotions from her father.

How could she be angry with Cloud? Even if he did use Aeris, or get her car smashed up…he saved her. President Shinra continued to shake his head in disbelief, trying to comprehend what he had just heard. He could feel the anger growing in his gut as he clenched his fists and flared his nostrils.

"I will kill that lying son of a bitch!" Her father growled, turning toward the door, stopping just before reaching for the handle. "But I can't. I can't let anyone know that I made a mistake." Tifa looked up at her father with hurt in her eyes. Was her father really going to let Reno go without so much as a slap on the wrist?

"Wha…what do you mean? He tried to rape me and lied to you about it." Tifa spoke softly, not believing what her father had just said.

"Here's what we're going to do. I'll fire Reno for incompetence, but make no mention of what you told me. I can't give that security guard his job back though…it'll be too obvious. Yes…this will work." With that, her father reached for the door handle and left the room.

Tifa stared after him, unsure of what to do. Getting Reno fired was fair justice, but knowing that he was still in the city made her uneasy and unsure of what the consequences would be. She plopped down in one of the armchairs at the table and rested her head on her fist, thinking about the weekend.

About ten minutes later she heard a door slam down the hallway and knew that it could only mean one thing. She felt her body tense as she saw Reno angrily force his way through anyone in his path and he made his way toward the door separating him from her. He stretched out his hands and slammed open the double glass doors between them and slapped Tifa across the face, knocking her out of her chair. Reno reached down and grabbed her by the hair, pulling her up from the ground and causing her to cry out in pain.

"You haven't seen the last of me, Lockheart. You got me fired and ruined my life. When you least expect it, I'll ruin yours. Nobody messes with Reno. No body, not even sniveling daddy's girls like you." He snarled, releasing her hair and letting her fall once again before rushing from the room and out of the building.

Tifa pulled herself up into the chair and rubbed her cheek. Her skin burned with pain and her head was hurting. She tried to fix her hair as best she could and hid her face until she got back to her office where she took out her cosmetic back and applied some makeup to cover up the redness.

Reno's threat was not something she could report. Anything else she did now would just make him angrier and whatever he had in store for her far worse. She wondered where Cloud was, and what had happened to him. She hoped he was alright, but most importantly she worried about her own life. Reno was now an ex-Turk; there was no limit to what he was capable of.

* * *

"You're going to be alright, Mr. Strife." A doctor told Cloud as he lay in a hospital bed. "You've suffered a broken nose, a few third degree burns, a broken rib and a collapsed lung. We're going to need to keep you here for a few more days but you'll make a full recovery."

Cloud nodded and watched the doctor leave. His chest was in tremendous pain as he struggled to sit up a little. The beating he had suffered was not something he had expected, and due to the nature of the attack, not one he could even conceive of fighting back with. But Reno had gotten away with what he had done to Tifa. In the back of his mind Cloud could not help but feel a little bitter towards the woman, and some part of him felt that she would get what she deserved by disbelieving him. Without him around, Reno would be free to do as he pleased, as would anyone else, and no one would help her.

A few days later he was released from the hospital and told to take it easy, something he had no choice but to do since he was currently out of a job. And where could he get hired now that President Shinra himself had fired him? No one in their right mind would hire someone personally fired by the most powerful man on the planet.

He got in his car and drove back to his apartment to find an eviction notice posted to the door. Apparently his landlord had found out what had happened and didn't want such a dastardly person living in his building.

He had no job and no place to live. He had no choice but to pack up all of his clothes and set off for a new city. He had no family to move in with since his mother was dead and his father had abandoned him when he was only three years old. His only option was to live in his car until he could find something better.

He drove for days, stopping only to rest and eat, then returning to the road. He didn't know where he was going, all her knew was that he wanted to get as far away from Midgar as possible. The city had done nothing but ruin his life from the beginning, and he couldn't say that he wasn't glad to finally be leaving the metropolis.

Around the time he passed Fort Condor, he began seeing signs for the Junon exit. Three-hundred miles until he reached the "City by the Sea." Billboards passed by flashing advertisements for the Junon ferry service to Costa Del Sol. Cloud couldn't see making a life for himself in the resort town, but Junon offered boat services to the lower coast of the western continent as well.

Gonganga had always sounded like a quaint little town. Perhaps he could start over in a small town like that. From what he had heard Gonganga was devoid of anything that had to do with the name Shinra, the only thing there that belonged to the company was an old destroyed Reactor. It was the perfect place for an ex-Shinra employee to set up a new life.

Cloud pulled his car off to the side of the road for the night. In the morning he would drive the remaining 200 miles to Junon to catch a boat across the ocean. He fell asleep almost instantly, with his arms folded across his chest and his seat leaned back as far as it could go.

* * *

"Cloud!" Tifa called, waking him up from his sleep. He sat up, clutching his rib as he suddenly felt pain. He looked out his car window and saw her staring at him in the night sky, the stars behind her sparkling and the moon illuminating her features. She smiled, and reached out to stroke his messy hair. "You were asleep."

"I know…what are you doing here?" Cloud asked, still trying to figure out how and why she found him. This wasn't the type of place she would be traveling to, and certainly not in the middle of the night.

"I had to find you." She stated, giving him a trademark smile. "I wanted to tell you…that I'm sorry. I should have believed you, I wanted to…" Tears formed in her eyes as she stared him deep in the eyes. "I love you so much…" She leaned in through the window to give Cloud a kiss. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, grasping at her as if the car door were not in the way. "Hey…" Tifa said, and Cloud pulled back. "Hey…" She said again.

* * *

"Hey!" Cloud was awoken from his slumber at the brash tone of a police officer tapping on his window. He jolted up and grabbed the lever to pull his seat up, slamming his chest into the steering wheel and causing the officer to chuckle.

"What's wrong?" Cloud asked, irritated, rolling down the window.

"Sleeping on the side of the road is illegal in these parts. I'll let you off with a warning, but you just better get out of here. And be lucky that I'm in a good mood today. Or maybe it was your dream that made me have a change of heart. Either way, good luck with your lady friend." The policeman said with a roaring laugh as he filled out a warning ticket and let it drop onto Cloud's lap. He walked back to his car and drove away, laughing all the way.

Cloud shook his head to release his embarrassment and started up the car. He sped off towards Junon, cursing himself for having slept so late. Even after what she had said to him…the thing about him being a creep and it being his fault for damaging her car…he couldn't get her out of his head. She had been mistaken, and as cruel as she had been, he couldn't blame her. If he had been in her position he would have done the same, and the fact that him supposedly being with Aeris upset her so much meant that she had to have had some feelings for him.

He arrived in Junon several hours later, in the early hours of the evening, when the sun was setting and the air was cooler. He drove to the drop-off point to leave his car to be shipped to Gonganga. He looked around at the heavily industrialized Ocean Town that surrounded him. There was a large cannon that had been left over from the Wutai war some decades earlier. The cannon was so powerful that it could accurately and effectively target and attack Wutai, even though it was thousands of miles away.

Cloud bought his ticket for Gonganga with the little money he had left and boarded the ship. He sat in a dark seat in the back corner and rested his head against the window, watching the water flow past him as the boat sped off toward Gonganga.

In order to start his new life in Gonganga he had to get Tifa out of his mind. If he couldn't…then it would be much more difficult for him to find a job and get on with his life. He couldn't have her lingering in the back of his head if he wanted to move on.

He quickly slipped off the boat and down to the pick-up to obtain his vehicle and head for Gonganga. It was only a half hour drive or so until he reached the small town from the port. It was such a small town that having a car was more of a hassle than a blessing, and he left it at the nearest parking space.

Cloud still had no idea what he would do with himself now that he was away from Midgar. He took solace in the idea that he was now free of the relentless tyranny of Shinra and its employees, especially Reno.

As he walked down the dirt road toward the center of town, he came across a small bar and decided to stop in for a drink to forget his troubles. He had a seat at the bar and checked his pockets for any gil. He didn't even have enough for one crappy beer, and he lowered his head to the table.

"Hey buddy, you look like you could use a drink." The bartender asked, as he walked over to Cloud's distressed form. Cloud lifted his head and stared at the man in front of him, a man in his early forties, heavy and balding.

"I don't have enough for anything." Cloud apologized. It seemed to not deter the man before him.

"That's okay, it's on the house. You're not from around here are ya?" Cloud shook his head. "Well around here we don't think that a couple of gil should keep ya from anything." The man said with a smile. He turned around to mix Cloud a drink, then slid the glass over to him.

Cloud quietly sipped his drink, not noticing the man in the booth who had been watching him since he entered the bar. The man, who wore a white T-shirt and dark blue work pants, stood up and walked over to sit next to Cloud at the bar. He had long black, spiked hair and intensely deep blue eyes. He continued to stare at Cloud until the blonde noticed and turned to face him.

"Can I help you?" Cloud asked the stranger, noticing an uncanny resemblance between himself and this man. The person next to him just stared for another moment before speaking.

"You're new around here, aren't ya?" The man asked, his voice much deeper than Cloud's.

"Yeah, why?" Cloud asked.

"It's not a difficult town to get to know. What brings you out here? We never get new people way out here."

"I needed to start over." Cloud responded, staring at his drink and clasping it with both hands. The man next to him nodded.

"Was it bad?" The man asked, referring to Cloud's reason for being in such a small town.

"You could say that." Cloud answered, hoping the man would leave him alone.

"Well, this is definitely the town to reinvent yourself, if you wanted to disappear into obscurity." The man continued, "So what happened to make you come out to this desolate place?"

"Forget it, it doesn't matter." Cloud replied, getting a little irritated.

"A woman was involved, huh?" The man prodded, trying to keep Cloud talking.

"None of your business." Cloud stated, his voice a little gruff.

"I'm just trying to make conversation. You came to this town alone, I haven't seen you around which means you haven't been here long, and the first thing you do is go to a bar? Says you don't have any family or anyone here to see. And since this is the first bar in town, I'm judging you've never been here before. I'm just trying to help. The name's Zack." The man said, outstretching his arm. Cloud looked down at Zack's hand, then looked back up at the man. He blinked and turned back to his drink. Zack brought his hand back, a little embarrassed.

"I don't need your help." Cloud grumbled before taking another swig.

"You need a place to stay, and a job. I just so happen to be able to help you out with both of those problems." Zack stated proudly. Cloud turned to face him with an expression of frustration.

"How can you help me?" He asked, a little peeved.

"You can stay at my place until you get on your feet, and they're hiring grunts to help build the new reactor. Now trust me, I hate Shinra as much as the next guy, but work is work and I need money. You in?"

"Why do _you_ hate Shinra?" Cloud questioned.

"I used to be a Soldier, I was out on a mission when those damn Turks double-crossed me, I was sort of exiled here." Zack responded, a look of sheer disgust on his face.

"Yeah, I was a security guard, until those Turks screwed me over too." Cloud added. Zack raised his beer to Cloud, who in turn raised his glass for a toast.

"To being screwed by Shinra, and in turn, building their new reactor to shit." Zack stated with a smile. Cloud smirked and nodded his head.

On his first day in Gonganga, he had already found a new job, a friend, and a place to stay. Unfortunately he was going right back to work for the company that had just ruined his former life, but if Zack was telling the truth, then they could do a second-hand job building the new reactor, and in turn, perhaps, waste that terrible company's money by doing so.


	6. Death of a Legacy

Author's Note: Chapter 6, should evoke sadness, but it may not, I'm not sure. Anyway, within just two days of posting chapter 5 I got ten reviews, which is quite pleasing. I'm glad that so many people still enjoy and look forward to this story. I wish that Victim retained its old enthusiasm. One of the reasons that chapter 5 took so long to finish was because all of my ideas were formed in chapter 6, so I needed to finish chapter 5 before I could get them down on paper. If that makes any sense, to be honest I have a bit of a hangover as I write this so I'm not totally sure if this author's note makes sense. Oh well, enjoy the next chapter!

* * *

The sun was bearing down increasingly strong, much more so than usual for the time of year for the city in question. Beads of sweat glistened on the backs of the shirtless men who, with each powerful swing of a shovel, dug deeper into the red soil of Gonganga.

One of the youngest on the crew, a striking man of twenty-one, lifted his dirt-stained forearm to wipe the sweat from his brow. He took a deep breathe before returning to his work, unaccustomed to the extreme heat that he was now forced to endure for a measly paycheck. It had only been three months since he started working for the construction company, but it already felt like he had been digging his entire life. Because Gonganga was such a small town, and since until this point it had refused Shinra's monopoly of machines and services, large equipment was scarce and what was on hand was terribly outdated and in need of repairs, so the bulk of services were done by hand.

Cloud thrust the shovel into the earth once more, exhausted from the heat and barely able to see through his sweat enclosed eyes. He could feel the perspiration dripping from his forehead onto his eyelashes as he shook his head to remove it, noticing Zack next to him rubbing his own forehead and breathing heavily. Cloud took solace in the fact that he wasn't the only one weary from the heat. Zack lifted his chin to acknowledge the new crew member before returning to his own work.

What continued to get Cloud through each day was not the need for a paycheck but the image of the Shinra building in the dirt as he stabbed the earth with his shovel. He had barely worked for the company and been sold out. When at last he felt himself giving in to the sun's desires, and his shoulders began to sway with fatigue, he heard the call of a bell to toll the end of the work day and proceeded into the contractor's quarters to clock out.

Cloud, with his tanned skin and his toned upper body, reached for his white tank top from his back pocket and slid it over his head, instantly soaking the fabric with his sweat. He waited for Zack to punch out before the two headed out to the nearest bar for a few drinks before returning home.

"So are you ever going to tell me about that girl?" Zack asked without even looking away from his drink. Cloud looked at him with a furrowed brow, giving Zack a look that said 'stop now.'

"What girl?" He asked, taking a long sip from his beverage. Zack smirked and cocked his head to the side.

"What girl? The one you dream about when you stare off into space. The reason you're here. _That_ girl."

"She's no one." Cloud responded before finishing his glass and ordering a new one.

"C'mon, man. You've been here for three months and I don't know why. What did Shinra do to you?"

"Fine. You really want to know?" Zack nodded redundantly. "Alright, I was working one night as a security guard and ended up babysitting the President's daughter while she was drunk. She took me to a party and I got blamed for wrecking her car and fired for something one of the Turk's did." Cloud reached for his new drink and drained the whole glass. Zack sat stunned for a moment before speaking.

"Wait, the President's daughter? Isn't she totally gorgeous?" Cloud could see where this was heading and decided not to continue the subject further.

"Nothing happened." He stated to end the conversation. He could tell that Zack had a million questions but he didn't pursue the answers any longer, taking head of Cloud's stern glance.

"So you got screwed by the man himself, huh?" Zack prodded. Cloud nodded slightly and through down some Gil to pay his tab.

"You know what the strange part was?" Cloud asked, almost rhetorically. "She really did seem different than you'd expect her to be." He stood up slowly, nodded to the bartender and headed for the door.

"Do you think about her?" Zack asked, already knowing the answer.

"Everyday." Cloud replied as the door closed behind him.

* * *

Colored lights flashed on and off in random patterns across the dance floor over the hundreds of people that were crammed into the building. They danced without inhibition, too drunk to realize who they were dancing with, or how ridiculous they looked doing so either. Their grunts and moans from exaggerated dancing were drowned out by a clamoring drum beat intertwined with a keyboard to create the dance music.

People piled in to the point of sheep waiting to be sheared in a holding pen, packed in like sardines. Navigating from the dance floor to the bar proved to be more of a feat than a simple task. Groups of single girls pushed their way through the crowd single file and holding hands to keep from getting separated. Scores of men watched and waited to pounce on an unsuspecting drunk in the hopes of waking up the next morning satisfied.

The bartenders mixed drink after drink while the security guards prowled the grounds breaking up arguments. Two young women forced their way through the crowd and out to the dance floor, where they were unrecognizable.

Tifa had finally decided to enjoy herself by going out dancing after months of feeling guilty for what happened to Cloud. After waiting for Reno to exact his revenge on her she was still a little edgy about going out in public. Aeris tried to remedy that by taking her friend to the hottest, and most crowded, night club in town.

"Forget him." Aeris screamed over the roaring beat.

"I already have." Tifa responded while raising her arms above her head and shaking her hips to the music.

* * *

"Hey Zack…if we build that reactor to shit, won't it disrupt the Mako?" Cloud asked one night after work.

"We're just building the outside, as long as those Shinra eggheads build the controls right everything is fine." Zack responded before taking a drink from his beer.

"But what about the last one?"

"Since when do you ask questions?" Zack said with a smirk. "The last reactor blew cause some idiot used a shitty lever. It broke and the thing stalled. End of story."

"Yeah but if the container was crap wouldn't it explode?"

"What are you, a scientist? We're building the damn thing quickly, if a few nuts and bolts get lost here and there, no problem. But we know it's not up to standard, no harm done, right?" Zack reassured, tilting his head and shrugging his shoulders.

"Whatever you say." Cloud responded, downing the last of his beer.

"So that Shinra girl…she as hot as everyone says?"

"Forget it man. I'm done with all that." Cloud stated without looking at Zack.

"I'm just wondering."

"Well stop. I told you nothing happened. I took her home and the Turk's trashed her car. End of story." Cloud said, mimicking Zack.

"Whatever you say." Zack said, repeating the favor.

* * *

"I'm gonna go for drinks." Aeris stated, her breath heavy with alcohol.

"No don't worry about it, I'll go. You want a Citrus Coke, right?" Tifa responded, already pushing her way through the crowd.

"Yeah." Aeris said, unaware that her friend didn't hear.

Tifa struggled to force her way out of the mass of bodies and off of the dance floor. After finally reaching the slightly less crowded bar area she strolled up to the counter to order her drinks.

Reno had been going to the hottest clubs in town just to wait for her. He was not the type of person to let a grudge go, no matter who it was against. While sitting on a bar stool with his bald friend Rude, and an exceptionally drunk young woman, he noticed Tifa walking toward another bar area. Immediately his eyes narrowed in on her and he gritted his teeth. This was the woman who cost him his job and his future. If it hadn't been for her he could have taken over in his father's shoes and been the head of the Turks. He could have been one of the most powerful men in the world. But she had taken that away from him. He got up to walk over to her but Rude stopped him.

"Hey where are you going?" He asked with a hand on Reno's shoulder.

"She's here." The redhead responded.

"No man, c'mon, are you seriously gonna do this?" Rude asked, looking around to see if anyone was eavesdropping. Reno looked around as well and glared at Rude.

"She ruined my life." He sneered.

"But do you really have to do this?" Rude leaned in and tried to whisper.

"Yes, I do. Now let me go."

"I'm sorry man. I can't let you do this." Rude said, digging his fingers into Reno's shoulder a little deeper.

"I said let me go."

"Let her go."

"You got a thing for her?" Reno suddenly snapped. Rude just looked away without saying a word, then looked back at Reno with his tongue pressed into his cheek. "Well fuck you man!" Reno snarled, lifting his fist to Rude's jaw and sending the man back a couple steps. "I thought you had my back. Guess I was wrong." And with that, Reno slipped into the crowd undetected to follow Tifa.

* * *

"So which Turk was it?" Zack asked, resting his hands on the handle of his shovel.

Cloud put his forearm to his brow and squinted his eyes in the sun. He looked up out of the trench he was in to see if his boss was nearby. He placed his hands on his hips for a moment, contemplating whether or not to indulge in this conversation. He shook his head in disgust with himself and picked up his shovel once again.

"Reno." He stated while flinging a pile of dirt out of the trench. Zack threw his head back and laughed.

"That's the shit who screwed me too! Oh wow, that bastard gets around!" Zack said while shaking his head in disbelief.

"Oh yeah?" Cloud said, lifting his head up to meet Zack's gaze. "What'd he do to you?"

"There was a terrorist attack on one of the reactors in Midgar a few years back. Me and a few other Soldiers were sent to catch the bastards. But they got away. We chased them across the valley and towards Kalm, but when we got there we got a phone call telling us to come back. When we did we all got fired. Reno told some board member that he had evidence that I had aided the terrorists, and I sentenced to death, but since I had never done anything wrong before they let me go on the contingency that I never go back to Midgar."

"Why'd he do that?" Cloud asked, scratching the back of his head.

"I caught that asshole forging company documents. If he got rid of me then I had no credibility and he could get away with it. Why'd he get rid of you?"

"He tried to hurt Tifa. I stopped him."

"And she blamed you for it?"

"No. Her best friend said that I tried to rape _her_."

"Wow, you're a regular soap opera actor aren't you?" Zack smirked. Cloud punched him hard in the arm and glared.

"Shut up man." He said, shaking his head.

* * *

"A Citrus Coke and a Cherry Popper." Tifa told the bartender. She rested her arm on the bar while she waited and looked around the room for any signs of Reno.

Reno watched from a distance as she took a sip from the Cherry Popper and paid the bartender. He watched her like an animal stalking its prey, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Tifa was focused on getting into the middle of the dance floor without spilling her drinks, and while her gaze fell on the crowd in front of her, Reno made his move.

"Hey!" Tifa snapped at the man who bumped into her.

She didn't see his face with all the swirling lights but she heard her drink spill a little. She sighed deeply and shook her head at the incompetence of some of the other people in the bar. Now a little peeved, she forced her way through the crowd with determination.

"Let's go." Reno told Rude when he found his friend once again, still rubbing his sore cheek.

"Did you do it?" Rude asked in a panic.

"We've got to get out of here, _now._" Reno reiterated. Rude threw his head back and sighed.

"Oh shit, you didn't. Goddamn you you shitty motherfucker!" Rude yelled.

Reno grabbed his arm and practically dragged him out of the crowd. The music luckily drowned out the sound of Rude's voice and allowed them to sneak out of the club without suspicion.

"What the fuck is your problem?" Rude screamed once the two men were out in the parking lot. "You think you can just go around doing this shit?" He brought his hands up to rest on the top of his smooth cranium as he turned his back to his friend. "Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Fuck!" With the last swear he raised his arms in the air, then brought them to his knees as he bent over in anguish. He looked over at his friend and began to breathe heavily. "What the fuck were you thinking? You are screwed, no, _we_ are screwed!" He continued to look at the ground as if it held the answers. Reno walked over with determination and slapped Rude across the face.

"Will you shut up for a minute? Nothing's gonna happen. She didn't see my face and no one knows who we are. Everything's fine. So quit crying like a little girl and let's get outta here." Reno snarled, and then walked toward their car. Rude stood up to catch his breathe and shook his head.

"We're going to hell." He said under his breathe, and then ran to catch up to Reno.

* * *

"Hey! Here you go." Tifa called over the roar of the music, handing Aeris her drink. Aeris took a large gulp and then noticed her friend's beverage.

"What'd you order?"

"A Cherry Popper." Aeris' eyes lit up.

"Oh my god I should have ordered that, can we trade, please?" She begged.

"Yeah, sure, no problem." Tifa nodded, handing Aeris the other drink.

Tifa began to dance again, being careful to not to spill her drink. She knew that the whole night there had been eyes on her from every direction. She couldn't go anywhere without turning heads and she had become so accustomed to the stares that she no longer paid attention to exactly _who_ was looking at her. She watched as Aeris finished her drink in one large gulp and smiled.

"That was so good!" She commented.

Suddenly Aeris shook her head and blinked her eyes. She placed her hand on her forehead to try and steady her sight as the room began to spin. No mixed drink had ever done that to her before, especially one as simple as a Cherry Popper. Never before had such a small amount of alcohol gone to her head so quickly, and she knew that something was wrong.

"Are you okay?" Tifa asked as she saw her friend start to wobble.

Tifa reached out her arms to try and steady Aeris but her friend collapsed to the floor almost instantly. The crowd moved out of the way but continued to dance, being used to people collapsing on the dance floor. But Tifa was not used to Aeris collapsing so suddenly, and after just one drink. She kneeled down beside her friend and tried to wake her up by tapping her face lightly.

"Aeris. Aeris…" She said softly, shaking her friend and trying to get her to stir.

But Aeris didn't respond. Tifa shook her again, this time more violently, a knot forming in the pit of her stomach. Aeris' head rolled to the side and Tifa began to breathe heavily.

"Aeris. Can you hear me? Come on you have to wake up. Come on Aeris just say something." She could feel tears in her eyes at the moment that she realized that something was really wrong. She stood up and pushed her way through the crowd as quickly as she could to find help. She found a security guard and put a hand on his shoulder to catch her breathe.

"My friend…she collapsed…something's wrong. Please help me." She pleaded, looking into the man's eyes and letting the tears slide down her cheeks. The man nodded and followed her to Aeris.

The crowd had moved aside and was waiting for some drama as Tifa and the security guard returned. Tifa instantly fell to her knees and tried to wake Aeris again as the security guard, seeing the problem, pulled out his phone and called the police.

Tifa lifted Aeris' head onto her lap and listened to her heart, but heard no sound. Aeris hung limply in her arms as she pulled her friend close to her and hugged her. She let out a loud cry as she realized that whatever had been put in the drink was intended for her and not Aeris. She felt herself become racked with guilt, if she hadn't traded drinks, Aeris would still be here. Tifa lifted her head and screamed as loud as she could, frightening the crowd into taking a few steps back until the paramedics arrived.


	7. Thinking of Deception

Author's Note: I updated this chapter because I left out a little part I had wanted to put into the conversation between Tifa and Yuffie at the end, so go back and read that part. Barfly got a rather hostile review last week. To read my response to the review, as well as a link to my Myspace, visit my profile. I'm not even going to tackle the issue in this author's note, too much for me to say. One thing, I apologize for leading you all to believe that the more you review the quicker a chapter will be posted. For me, I don't write unless I get the fever, and for the past 8 or so years, it's come off and on pretty rarely. Every writer has their own way of catching that fever, and for me, playing one of the FF games or listening to the music from the game helps. As for all my writing, my inspiration comes from something really childish. When I was little, I played with action figures and dolls. Using them helped create my stories, and since I grew out of that, I stopped writing as much, unfortunately. Years from now, I think that'll be my way of focusing on my stories, hah hah. I can be such a dork sometimes.

The mid-afternoon sky was clear and gloomy; not blue, and not grey, but completely white, indicating a storm was to pass within the next few hours. It was an anomaly of life; the fact that with all things depressing, rain was imminent. Funerals especially, it seemed as though the sun would not shine over a cemetery, such weather would distract from the crowd's sorrowful purpose.

Offset by the sky was the large crowd of mourners dressed in expensive black clothing. For this society, the occasion did not matter; it was always required to be fashionable. The women held handkerchiefs, those who did not know the victim so well used the cloth to gently dab the tears from the corners of their eyes so as not to ruin their makeup, while the close friends and family of the deceased let the tears flow freely, soaking the cloth with blackened tears.

An older man with neatly styled gray hair stood closest to the preacher, dressed in a designer black suit and holding a large bouquet of pink roses at his left side, keeping such a tight grip on the stems that they were bending. His right arm was wrapped around the shoulders of a woman with graying black hair whose hands were pressed against the chest of the man next to her, her face buried in his torso. They were divorced, but a time like this could bring even the most devoted of enemies together. But in fact, these two had always been on good terms, even though they had gone their separate ways. The man continued to stare at the coffin hovering over the gravesite in front of him. He was burying his only daughter; it was a parent's worst nightmare.

A light drizzle began to fall, softly spotting the silk dress caressing the skin of President Shinra's daughter. Her dark hair was pulled back to the nape of her neck and wrapped into a bun. Her earrings were simple tear drops made of crystal that expressed what their wearer could not. Tifa stood completely still during the entire ceremony, unable to move or even produce a real tear. The closest she came to crying was a slight, uncontrollable twitch in her left eye that had been with her all day. Her thin shoulders slumped a little and her arms hung limply at her sides, her hands clasped together in front of her. Her lips were slightly parted and her eyes drooped with the sorrow that she could not shed for her friend.

Like Aeris' father, Tifa had not taken her eyes off of the coffin that held her best friend. She could not defeat her intense feeling of responsibility—of guilt. No matter what anyone said, she could not escape the fact that whatever had killed Aeris had been intended for her. She had instantly realized that Reno was behind the incident, but it didn't change the fact that Aeris was lying in what should have been Tifa's coffin. If she hadn't traded drinks Aeris would still be alive. Aeris had taken Tifa's place without even knowing.

Tifa couldn't help but imagine her life without her best friend from now on. She had no one else in her life that knew her like Aeris did. It was as if her heart was a window and someone had thrown a brick through it. She felt lost already, and it had only been a week since Aeris had died in her arms. It was an image she would never be able to erase from her memory. She had held her best friend—a woman who might have well been her twin sister—in her arms and watched the life fade out of her emerald eyes. She could never forgive herself for giving Aeris her drink.

The breeze was blowing Tifa's stray locks gently to the west as the crowd dissipated. The young woman still had not so much as shifted her weight as if she were in a trance, just staring at the coffin. Aeris' parents were the only others that remained, but soon they came back to reality and walked over to Tifa. Mr. Gainsborough placed a hand softly on her shoulder for comfort.

"She wouldn't want you to feel like this, you know." Aeris' father in a gruff whisper. "She'd never blame you. She loved you."

After hearing those final words Tifa finally lifted her head and turned to look at Mr. Gainsborough. The corners of her lips lifted just slightly to form a smile and she nodded.

"Thank you." She said before the other couple walked away.

"Funeral services were held in Midgar today for Aeris Gainsborough, daughter of shipping industrialist Warren Gainsborough. Police are investigating this death as a homicide and are looking for leads.

Miss Gainsborough died quickly following the consumption of an alcoholic beverage at Shang Hai's, a popular nightclub for the progeny of upper Midgar's wealthy. Tifa Lockheart, daughter of Shinra's President narrowly avoided her own death by unknowingly trading drinks with her friend.

This was not the first attack against these two heiresses'. Several months ago two Shinra employees were fired for unknown reasons involving the two young women.

In other news…"

Zack had watched the news program as soon as Aeris' named was mentioned. His eyes widened and his jaw had dropped a little. He looked over at Cloud, who had passed out on the lounge chair he had been sitting on. One two many drinks had finally caught up to the young blonde. He hadn't stirred during the report so Zack threw a pillow at his head to wake him. Cloud opened his eyes slowly and groaned.

"What?" He snarled.

"Did you see that?" Zack asked. Cloud squinted at the television screen and shook his head.

"No, I'm going back to sleep, don't wake me up again."

"No wake up man, Aeris Gainsborough died!" Cloud shot up in his chair and parted his lips.

"What?" The blonde exclaimed.

"Yeah, I guess she took Tifa's drink and died. They think someone put something in it. My god…she…she's gone…" Zack's voice trailed off and he lowered his head. Cloud raised an eyebrow and stared at him.

"You knew her?" He asked, confused. Zack looked up with a look of despair on his face. He almost appeared as though he could cry.

"She…We dated when I lived in Midgar. I never even realized that she was Mr. Gainsborough's daughter…She never said anything."

"Then don't you know Tifa?"

"Nah, just Aeris. Tifa was away at her private college or something."

"Sheesh," Cloud lowered his head, "Aeris was the one that said I tried to rape her…" Cloud admitting, knowing that he was stepping on thing ice. Zack looked up with a puzzled expression.

"Wha…why would she do that?"

"…I dunno." Cloud lied, thinking it best to spare Zack the details. "Wait, you said she took Tifa's drink?"

"Yeah." Zack replied, snapping out of his thoughts.

"Reno…"

"You think it was him?"

"It had to have been, he got fired because of Tifa and she turned him down. Well, whatever, it's their problem now." Cloud said, standing up and turning to head into his bedroom. Zack looked up at him puzzled, again.

"Wait…so that's it? Whatever? You don't even care?"

"No. Not really. I'm here, they're over there, it has nothing to do with me." Cloud said, shrugging. He stumbled into his bedroom and closed the door behind him. Zack lowered his head back into his hands and fought back tears.

Tifa had reluctantly returned to work a week after Aeris' funeral. Until then she had been lying around the house, barely even leaving her bed. Her best friend's death had struck her hard and she was finding it difficult to move on. Her father had finally forced her to go to work, but had allowed her to lock herself in her office. He felt that just getting her out of the house was a good start to her recovery. She spent the day staring at her desk with her head propped up on her fists, replaying that night over and over again in her head and imagining what would have happened if she had kept her own drink.

"Tifa." She heard her father's voice and was startled. She looked up to see her father standing on the other side of her desk looking down at her. "I'm sending you on a special assignment. I'd like you to go to Gonganga to oversee the construction of the reactor."

Tifa stared at her father as if in a daze. She couldn't believe that after the tragedy that she went through; his solution was to send her to a strange town by herself?

"Papa…"

"I think it'll be good for you—to get away for awhile—you wouldn't be doing much, I just want you to make sure that the team is on schedule and that everything is up to code, I've hired some inspectors, they'll be there next week, along with you."

"I…I can't…really…"

"Listen, Tifa," President Shinra said while sitting on the edge of Tifa's desk and putting a hand on his daughter's shoulder, "work will take your mind off of everything that's happened, trust me. When your mother died…well...I had you to help me, but you…you don't really have anyone to help you through this, you know? I mean, I'm here, but that doesn't help much does it? This trip…I think it will help."

"Papa…Aeris _just_ died…How am I going to be of any help?"

"No more protests, Tifa. I really think this is for the best."

Tifa stood in her stately bedroom at the foot of her bed. A large pile of clothes lay sprawled out on her duvet made of an expensive exotic fabric. Her designer suitcase sat open next to the pile as she carefully picked up and folded each garment before placing it inside of the luggage. Her expression did not change as she packed for the trip she so desperately wished would be cancelled. The last thing she wanted was to be away from home at a time like this.

The curtains were pulled to the sides of a sliding glass door, allowing the how summer sun to shine into her airy room. Outside was a large balcony with black curving cast-iron rails that overlooked the expansive grounds in her backyard. Often she had leaned against the railing at night looking up at the stars and dreaming of the one thing that she was missing in her life.

On the opposite wall was her walk-in closet that could have substituted as a whole other room. Row after row of clothing racks created aisles while shelves lined the walls that stretched up to the ceiling filled with shoes. A large armoire stood next to the closet door to hold accessories: purses, belts, hats and jewelry.

Tifa was jolted out of her own little world by a knock at the door and turned to see Yuffie standing in the doorway wearing the top of a forest green halter bikini and a khaki miniskirt. A large yellow tropical flower was pinned behind her left ear and her skin glistened of body oil. After being acknowledged by her host she entered the bedroom and walked over to Tifa, slowly.

"Hey," Tifa said first. Yuffie smiled and clasped her hands behind her back. "Just packing."

"Your dad told me." Yuffie replied, looking over the clothes Tifa had selected for the trip. "So, Gonganga, huh?" Tifa nodded while folding a white blouse.

"I can't believe my dad's sending me there. I mean, the last thing I want right now is to spend a week in that clay pit." Tifa groaned.

"I'm sure it won't be _that_ bad." Yuffie cooed. "And I think it will be good to get away…I mean, this has been tough on all of us, but especially you."

"You know what the worst part of it all is?" Yuffie shook her head. "I couldn't even cry at the funeral. She's my best friend, and I couldn't even cry for her." Tifa shook her head and looked like she could cry at that moment.

"Tifa…" Yuffie looked down at her friend and put a hand on her shoulder. "Do you remember when your mom died?" Tifa looked up at her as if she were an idiot. Of course she remembered when her mom died, who wouldn't?

"Yes…"

"Do you remember how you felt at her funeral?"

"Yes, I cried my eyes out." Tifa said with a matter-of-fact shrug.

"No. You stood frozen just like you did at Aeris' funeral. You didn't cry at all. Not until the next day. Then you cried for days."

"Really?" Tifa asked, her eyes watery.

"Yeah, that just how you deal with grief, that's how you've always been, you don't cry at first."

"But I should have…"

"You didn't have to, everyone knew how you felt. Whether you cried or not didn't change the fact that it was obvious you were crushed."

"Yeah…I guess." They both sat quietly for a long moment before Yuffie broke the silence by trying to change the subject.

"Hey, whatever happened to that guy you were with?" She asked, knowing the answer. Tifa glared at her.

"Don't remind me. Aeris died horribly, and what's worse is that she had to go through _that_ just a few months ago."

"Yeah…" Yuffie trailed nervously. Tifa looked over at her a little confused.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked her friend. Yuffie shifted uneasily.

"Well, I know this probably isn't the right time to tell you this but…I don't think there'll ever be a good time so…" Yuffie looked down at her feet. "Cloud didn't try to rape Aeris…" She looked up at Tifa to see the brunette's jaw drop.

"What do you mean? Cloud forced himself on her." Tifa reminded her.

"No…he didn't. Look I was coming back from the bathroom when I passed Aeris' room…I overheard him turning her down. I know it was wrong but I stopped to listen because I had seen him show up with you and I was wondering why he was in Aeris' bedroom. When you started screaming he just burst out of the door, he almost hit me in the face. I…just thought you should know…" Yuffie fell silent to let Tifa comprehend what she had just said.

"So…it was Aeris coming on to Cloud?"

"Yes, and…Reno busted up your car, Cloud fought him and he fired a gun at your car." Tifa looked as though she had been stabbed. Yuffie could tell that she was trying to restrain her emotions.

Tifa sat down on her bed, letting the garment she was holding rest against her lap. Cloud had been telling her the truth, and she had turned him away. Not only that, but she had outright cut all ties to him. There was nothing she could do, she had thrown away the one man that hadn't tried to take advantage of her or use her and now he was gone.

"What are you going to do?" Yuffie asked. Tifa looked up at her, thinking about her options.

"What can I do?" She stated, shrugging her shoulders gently. He lives in the slums…this is a big city he could be anywhere. I don't know if he still lives in Midgar, he could be anywhere in the world."

"Your dad's the most powerful man in the world, he can pay to track anyone right?" Yuffie said, trying to cheer her friend up. Tifa scoffed at the notion.

"Yeah, I'm going to stalk this guy, and then what, get down on my hands and knees to beg for forgiveness?" Tifa chuckled. Now it was Yuffie's turn to shrug.

"It's worth a shot." Yuffie said with a smile. Tifa laughed and threw a hat at her friend.

"Look, there's nothing I can do about it now. I was stupid and I don't even know if he was as good as he seemed anyway. I mean, who knows he could have turned out to be a jerk eventually."

"All guys become jerks eventually, the question is, how long would it take him to become one?" Tifa raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, you're not even making any sense anymore." She said.

"I'm just saying you never know what's gonna happen." Yuffie said.

"Tifa, it's time to go." Her father stated from the doorway. Tifa nodded and zipped up her suitcase. She stopped for a moment to look at Yuffie.

"Thanks for telling me."


	8. Dying Hearts

Author's Note: I started this chapter the day after I posted the last one, so let's see how long it takes me to finish this. Anyway I have a big announcement. I feel terrible for taking back something I said but due to the large numbers of people wanting me to email them the original version of Victim, and the fact that AOL will only let me send 8 chapters a time, I can no longer send anyone Victim, its just too much work for me to send everyone 8 emails, and write, and do all the other things I need. I'll still try but I'm not making any promises. Again I'm really sorry, if I could send the whole folder as one attachment, that would be great. I might try sending it from a different address, but I'm not sure. Also, hah hah, I finally remembered that I had said at the beginning of this story that the inspiration came from watching The Notebook, and then I noticed that nothing in the story has anything to do with The Notebook so this chapter will introduce that element in it. Well, enjoy! Thanks for all the reviews and support!

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The sun was setting into a pink sky late in the evening when a mysterious limousine pulled up outside of Gonganga. Long lines of slow moving white clouds stretched across the hemisphere as if they were traffic during rush hour. The black limo stopped with a cloud of dried clay rising above it like a fog.

The nearest people on the street rushed over to see why such a fancy car would appear outside their town. They pressed against each other, while the shorter people used the people in front of them to gain leverage to jump in order to see what all the commotion was about. Onlooker's peered eagerly into tinted windows to catch a glimpse of who might be inside.

The driver, dressed impeccably in a black tuxedo, was an older gentleman who always had a smile on his face and a compliment to give. His hair was nearly all white and slicked back against his scalp. He exited the vehicle and strolled around to the rear passenger's side door to open it for his occupant. With a deep bow he pulled open the car door as the crowd waited impatiently for their guest.

A long, slender leg emerged from the car wearing an expensive strapped heel. Soon another leg appeared, along with an incredibly short pink plaid skirt. The woman exiting from the limo wore a large pink sun hat to hide her identity and enormous white-rimmed sunglasses to hide her face even more. She wore a matching pink plaid suit jacket with a white blouse underneath. The blouse was not tucked in and the cuffs were folded over the end of the jacket sleeves.

Even under the hat and sunglasses the townspeople knew who she was. They could see her perfect skin and features, and her hair hung loose with large tossed curls. She looked like a supermodel or a movie star walking on the red carpet as she sashayed into town with her driver in tow with her luggage.

The crowd parted as she walked towards the small inn that she would be staying at. Murmurs could be heard in the crowd discussing the reasons behind her visit. No one could definitively say why the most beautiful woman in the world would visit a town such as Gonganga. A town so small that the only place for visitor's to stay was a small inn with three rooms. And never so long as anyone had lived there had there ever been a time when the inn was overbooked.

The crowd followed her to the inn and watched from outside as she checked in. Every once in a while she would turn and give them a wave and a smile, knowing full well how to respond with the average public who weren't used to seeing celebrities.

Her driver placed her suitcases in her room and bowed farewell before returning to his limousine and driving away from the town. Tifa was left to look at the tiny surroundings that she would be confined to during the upcoming week. Aside from the bed there was only a dresser and a bathroom, and the whole room was still smaller than her closet back home.

She let herself fall back onto the uncomfortable metal spring mattress and placed her hands behind her head as she stared up at the ceiling. She was here, in this small town that was seventy percent clay. And now that it was evening everything looked even redder than she had heard about. Tomorrow would be a very trying day and she was not looking forward to watching dirty sweaty men weld metal together. It was definitely not her idea of entertainment.

The least she could do for now was to find a local bar and reduce herself to drinking with common people. She had never thought of herself as being stuck up, but it really frightened her to sit amongst people who weren't like her, people who idolized her for being rich and beautiful. She stood up and walked over to her suitcase to find an outfit to change into.

She arrived at the bar wearing a tight white t-shirt with black sleeves that had been ripped to show off her midriff and the name of Midgar's baseball team written across the chest in red. She had on a tiny denim mini skirt with frayed edges and a pair of red low top sneakers. Her hair was pulled back into a large loose bun and she wore a small black bandana with sparkles on it to top it off. She looked as normal as was possible for her, and took a seat at the counter.

Most of the men in the bar were already drunk and were too afraid to go near her, thinking she would have them arrested or something. There was one man in the room that was neither afraid nor too drunk to move to a stool next to her. After ordering a martini she glanced over at the man to judge how to react. She was pleasantly surprised to find that he was an attractive young man in his twenties, with jet black hair that was long styled into large spikes almost like a hedgehog. He smiled and took a sip from his glass.

"So you're Miss Tifa Lockheart. What an honor." He stated, swirling his drink and bowing his head slightly. Tifa smiled nervously in return.

Being a smart woman, she knew not to trust any stranger, especially men. Whenever she saw someone she didn't know looking at her, she could only think about that party where Reno tried to…and that of course reminded her of Cloud. The man next to her sure did look an awful lot like him too. But he seemed to have his own charm about him as well, and hell, as long as she was here, why not have a little fun?

"Thank you." She responded with a soft smile. "And you are?"

"Zack. I'm not sure if you know this, but…I used to date your friend Aeris." Tifa cocked her head to the side as she put all the stories together.

"So…you're Zack?"

"Did she ever say anything about me?" Zack asked, nervous of the answer. Tifa nodded.

"Yes, actually, all the time for awhile…" As interested as Tifa was to learn about the man her friend had been in love with years ago, it pained her to talk about Aeris since her death.

"Really?" Zack almost seemed giddy as he asked. Again, Tifa nodded.

"Yes, but that was a couple years ago…she moved on but she still mentioned you from time to time. I never heard her speak of any guy as much as she did you. You must have been very special to her…" Tifa looked down at her drink and sighed. She could feel tears form in the corners of her eyes for her late friend. Zack inched over and nervously placed an arm around her shoulder.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to upset you…I heard what happened. I hope they catch the bastard that did that." Tifa leaned her head against his chest and allowed him to wrap his arms around her.

It wasn't so much that Zack seemed like a nice guy, it was more the fact that he had known Aeris and cared about her as well. Tifa had never even seen a picture of Zack, Aeris had really been hurt when they had broken up and hid all their old photos to keep herself from crying. Tifa felt an instant bond with this man for that reason.

"Hey, you know, there's this guy here…" Zack stopped talking when Tifa looked up at him with tear streaked cheeks. There was almost a look of hope in her eyes, as if she already had an idea of who he might be talking about. Whether or not she suspected that Cloud was here, Zack decided to do something he knew he would regret someday. "…He's a new reporter. He thinks that maybe Reno of the Turks was behind the attack…" Tifa's hope was diminished and she pressed her head against his chest again. Zack looked away and closed his eyes, disgusted with himself. He hugged Tifa a little tighter and ran his fingers through her hair.

After a few minutes Zack looked around to notice the other patrons staring at them. He turned away and finished off his drink and held up his finger to signal for his tab. Tifa was breathing softly and shuttering as she cried into his chest. He placed his hands on her shoulders and pulled away from her gently.

"You wanna go somewhere to talk or something?" He asked timidly, shifting his eyes toward the customers.

Tifa looked at them and immediately turned bright red. She wiped the tears from her cheeks and pulled out a mirror and a tissue to try and erase the mascara lines that snaked their way down her face. She nodded at Zack and he placed some gil on the counter to pay for both their drinks. He placed his arm around her shoulder again and walked her out of the bar.

The moon was shining clear when the two exited the bar. Tifa looked up at the stars that prominently dotted the sky above her. She could have sworn that she saw one shoot across the night and she smiled a little. Zack walked her to the inn and stopped outside her door. He knew what he was doing was wrong to Cloud, but he couldn't help himself. He wouldn't want to hurt his friend, but he doubted that anything would happen between him and Tifa anyway.

"You wanna come in for a little bit? I mean, I just wanna talk. Is that alright?" Tifa asked, innocently, looking up at Zack with her big brown doe eyes. He could have melted right then and there. Cloud? Cloud who?

"Sure, whatever you want."

Tifa smiled and opened the door for him. Zack looked back and forth down the hallway to see if anyone had seen them, and being satisfied, entered the room cautiously, as if Cloud or some sort of body guard would appear and attack him.

Tifa walked into her bathroom and wet a towel to remove the remaining mascara from her cheeks. By now she had stopped crying somewhat, she was still missing Aeris terribly, and was happy to find someone that had known her friend.

Zack sat down on the edge of the bed slowly and waited for her to return. He felt as though there were an angel on his left shoulder telling him to leave and not to talk to her anymore, and a devil on his right shoulder telling him to continue. He couldn't help but feel guilty, but he was also a man who wouldn't miss an opportunity for anything. He was trying to keep his impure thoughts pushed to the back of his head and focus on helping Tifa through this.

"I just…I just miss her so much." She sobbed, leaning against his shoulder. Zack put his arms around her again and let her cry loudly.

"Sshh, sshh, it's okay, everything will be okay." Zack cooed while stroking her hair.

"I mean…it should have been _me_. It was _my_ drink and I shouldn't have given it to her!" Tifa moaned while letting her lips stretch toward her jaw as she let out a loud sob.

Zack prayed that no one had heard or would check on the noise. He wasn't worried about the guys at the bar, they were too drunk to remember what had happened, but this was a small town, and he didn't want anyone to see him with Tifa so that it wouldn't get back to Cloud.

"Don't blame yourself, its not your fault. You had no idea what was in the drink, how could you have known? There's a reason it was her and not you, the Planet has a funny way of doing things but…there's a reason you're still here."

Tifa inhaled heavily and looked up at Zack. She couldn't explain why, but she felt very close to him at that moment. She gazed at his lips, and then back up into his eyes. Zack felt his heart begin to beat fast and his stomach sink. He knew what was coming and felt powerless to stop it.

Tifa inched closer to him and began to lean towards him. Zack closed his eyes and met her lips with his. She kissed him with all her built up passion, slow, but meaningful, while Zack wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her close to him, gripping her shirt with his hands.

Tifa woke up early in the afternoon in a daze. Zack was gone and the room felt very empty. Once she and Zack had gotten back to the inn she hadn't thought of anyone besides him and Aeris, and certainly not Cloud. It was nice to be with someone that seemed to generally care, Zack did, as a matter of fact console her while she broke down over Aeris.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes. She felt a little guilty for being with the one man that seemed to be important to Aeris, and so soon after her death, but she was just looking for comfort, and that's what Zack gave her.

She got out of bed and walked into the bathroom wearing only a black lacy bra and matching panties. She brushed her teeth, combed her hair and applied makeup before walking to her dresser to find an outfit suitable for work and the heat. She settled on an airy white short-sleeved blouse with rows of vertical ruffles on the front and unbuttoned to show just a little cleavage. She paired it with a tight knee-length gray ruffled skirt and a simple black belt. She knew it would be painful, but she wore a pair of black heels as well and pulled her hair into a high ponytail. She grabbed her notebook and set off for the construction site.

She checked in with the foreman to learn that the project was behind schedule. She groaned and walked to a shady area to watch the workers, looking around for Zack. One worker in particular caught her attention. He was shirtless, like all the other men, but he had a very muscular back, unlike most of the other workers, who were overweight middle-aged men. He was very tan and even though his hair was soaked with sweat and hanging limply against his head, she could tell that he was a blonde.

She couldn't help but wonder if maybe…somehow it could be…_him_. She shook herself out of her day dream and reminded herself that he was gone and there was no point in wondering about him anyway. Besides, Zack was a great guy that might possibly lead to _more_ than just whatever it was the night before.

* * *

_"Cloud…" _She whispered softly.

Cloud sat up in his bed, jolted from his sleep by the voice. He had heard it as clear as if she had been standing in the room with him. He looked around almost in a panic, knowing full well that it had only been a dream. Confirming the fact that she was not in his bedroom allowed him to gently close his eyes and fall back asleep.

The next day was the hottest day of the year so far. Cloud's back was so burned he could have sworn his skin was melting off. He picked up his shovel and drove it into the ground as hard as he could. The sweat was pouring from his face as he worked, his hair soaked and dripping with each swing of the shovel. He stuck the shovel in the ground so that it stood on its own and placed one of his feet up on it to rest. He pulled out the towel that was hanging from his back pocket and wiped the sweat from his brow.

"_Cloud!_" He heard her voice again.

This time he was sure that she was nearby and turned around. There, standing in Gonganga's clay, was Tifa. Her skin glistened in the afternoon sun and his jaw dropped. He could not believe that she was actually right in front of him. Then he realized that she was not alone. Standing next to her was the last person on the planet he would have suspected her to be with: Reno.

"_Heeeyyy, pal_." The redhead slurred while pointing his index finger at Cloud and holding his thumb up to form a gun, making a clicking sound with his tongue.

Cloud shot up in his bed once again, this time with a loud grunt. He placed a hand to his forehead and massaged his skin for a moment. He pulled the covers back and swung his legs off of the bed. He stood up wearing nothing but his boxer's and went into the bathroom.

After using the toilet he walked to the sink and washed his hands. He then splashed some water on his face and grabbed a towel to dry himself. He placed a hand on either side of the sink and looked into the mirror. He took a deep breathe and shook his head. He knew that he would never see her again, but there was always that hope. Seeing her in his dreams was the worst, because he would have to wake up and realize that it hadn't been real. He took another deep breathe and returned to bed, this time uninterrupted.

The next day he was on edge. Every time he heard even the slightest noise behind him he would turn around anxiously. At least he wasn't shoveling, so he didn't think his dream could possibly become a reality. Zack had been assigned to shovel so Cloud hadn't had a chance to talk to him at all, in fact, he hadn't even seen him for several hours. Cloud shrugged it off and continued with his work.

He was helping to put together one of the inner Mako containers. He was holding up the large sheets of reflective metal while two other workers welded. Cloud had to constantly close his eyes and look away from the reflection of the sun in the metal in order to keep from going blind.

All day he couldn't help but think about his dream. He didn't dream about her often, but when he did, it ruined his whole day. It was days like this that he wished he could have another chance to explain himself to her, that maybe she would just listen. But now, since Aeris was gone, she'd probably never give him the time of day. And _since_ Aeris was gone, there would never be a chance for Tifa to find out the truth, and of course she wouldn't believe _him_, she barely knew him.

Once the container was built and the lid welded on, all that was left was the shut off valve. It was a solid round piece of the metal with a slightly concave center, like a shallow bowl. He picked it up and held it in the shade before he would hand it off to the welders. While he was holding it he caught a glimpse of a person behind him. He shook his head to dismiss the thought, knowing full well that the heat and his mind were playing tricks on him. He knew that she wasn't really there, but it would have been nice.

When he opened his eyes again, she was still there, staring back at him in the silver valve. Her image was distorted, but he could tell it was her and see her beauty. He turned around, expecting to find no one and to confirm that he was just dreaming again, but when he turned around, she was there. She was staring back at him, her eyes wide and her mouth open. She looked like a deer in the headlights, and he couldn't tell if she was startled to see him or if she was afraid that he was so close to her.

He pulled out his towel and wiped the sweat off of his face. His heart began pounding as he watched her slowly raise her hand to cover her mouth. He noticed her chest beat heavy and she grinned. Before he knew it she was running towards him, tripping on the clay in her heels and falling face first to the ground. Just as she tripped he rushed forward to catch her in his arms before she could injure herself. She gripped his arms tightly after realizing that she had not hit the ground.

The looked up at him slowly, her lips slightly parted and tears in her eyes. She smiled and jumped to wrap her arms around his neck, pressing her body against his. She didn't care that he was sweaty, she was glad that she had finally seen him again. She pulled away and wiped the tears from her eyes, then looked down at herself and laughed noticing that she was now soaked with his sweat. He laughed too, but nervously, waiting for her to realize that she hated him.

"Cloud!" She cried, lunging to hug him once again. Again, he wrapped his arms around her nervously. "Yuffie told me the truth." She said with a smile.

"Yuffie?" Cloud asked. Tifa pulled away, barely able to contain her excitement.

"She overheard Aeris at the party, I know it wasn't you. I…I'm so sorry I didn't believe you." Tifa said while looking at her feet. Cloud let out a sigh of relief and hugged her again.

"I'm sorry…about Aeris…I know she was your best friend." Tifa looked down at the ground again.

"I know…it's been…rough."

"I'm sure it has." Cloud said, pulling away and bowing his head. "So what brings you out here?" He asked, looking skeptical.

"Work. My dad thinks this will be good for me to help get over Aeris." Tifa said cynically. Cloud let out a chuckle.

"Hey beautiful!" Zack said cheerfully as he came up next to Tifa and kissed her on the cheek.

Tifa felt her stomach sink as she smiled nervously until Zack noticed Cloud was talking to her. He too, felt a pit form in his stomach. Cloud just looked at them, his heart sinking and a look of horror on his face.


	9. Refuse Rejection

Author's Note: Yep, another chapter. I don't quite know what happened but I think it was a song I heard a few days ago. I've had it on loop for 5 days now so I guess that's why I've been writing so much. Plus I have my new kitten with me so that helps . He's playing with his tail right now. Anyway the last chapter ended abruptly because I realized that the original ending to it would fit better as the beginning and core of this one. I guess I'm going to spend the rest of my summer writing haha. Well since this story is a parallel of Barfly, you know that it is ending soon. Sad, I know. But be happy, because when this over I'll probably return to Victim. I don't have any other story ideas so these are pretty much it. I really need to write my original stories if I ever want to get published. Well, enjoy!

* * *

Zack slowly removed his arm from around Tifa's waist at the sight of Cloud. Tifa's jaw dropped as she closed her eyes and anxiously awaited someone, anyone, to say something, to break the extremely awkward silence. Hearing no one, she decided to speak up on her own.

"Cloud…I had no idea you would be here…" She trailed off, almost pleading with him for forgiveness and clasping her fingers into a fist and bringing it up between her breasts.

Cloud would never have blamed Tifa. She couldn't have known that he was here, or that he knew Zack. But Zack…he was the only person that knew how Cloud felt about Tifa. Cloud could feel a heat rising up into his chest, an anger that one spark could ignite.

"Hey…man…look…I'm _really_ sorry, I was at a bar last night…and she was there…she was crying…and _you _acted like you didn't care about her…I didn't mean to…it just sort of happened. I'm sorry." Zack gritted his teeth and raised his cheek bones, mentally kicking himself for betraying his best friend.

Cloud began to heave behind a clenched jaw and flared nostrils. Hearing Zack was the trigger he needed to set off his anger. He felt like a raging bull about to strike, and he licked his lips. He looked over at Tifa, who stood in horror looking back and forth between himself and Zack. Suddenly she too looked angered and she turned to shove Zack hard against the chest, sending him back a few steps and causing him to lose his balance. He fell to the clay in a cloud of dust and grunted. He looked up at her with a bit of fear in his eyes.

"You…you know him?" She asked while stamping her foot and extending her index finger toward Cloud.

Zack nervously nodded his head and received a kick in the chest. He clutched his heart in pain, feeling himself bleeding. He removed his hand slowly to find an open wound from where her heel had dug into his skin. He felt like someone had stabbed him with an ice pick. He dry heaved and staggered to his feet.

"You're his friend and you still…" Again she trailed, embarrassed to finish her sentence and let Cloud think that she was a whore. Her cheeks flared and she turned away to hide her face from the two men.

"You _knew_ how I felt about her man!" Cloud growled, pulling his fist back as Zack regained his composure.

While glaring at Zack he failed to notice the hint of a smile that formed on Tifa's lips when she heard what he had said. She turned just in time to see Cloud's fist smash into Zack's jaw and sending the man back a few steps. He twisted to crack his neck and shifted his jaw back and forth to knock it back into place. He brought his hand up to rub his skin and focused on Cloud.

"I told you I was sorry!" He yelled, hoping to be able to reason with Cloud.

"You son of a bitch!" Cloud called before driving his fist into Zack's nose. Tifa lifted her hands to cup her mouth as she gasped.

As fearful as she was at this moment, she couldn't help but feel a tinge of excitement. Two men were about to fight over her, something she was quite accustomed to, but never had she actually cared about both of the men before. Not only that, but one of them was Cloud.

She had thought that he probably hated her for not believing him and inadvertently causing him to get fired. She knew that her intuition the night before had been right, when Zack had mentioned a man he knew, then seemed to change what he had intended to say; somehow she had known that it was Cloud.

Zack put his hand under his nose to catch some of the blood. He began to feel his own anger and brought his fist around to meet Cloud's cheek. Cloud felt the blow in slow motion as blood fell from his busted lip and his head was pushed to the side. He shook off the attack and lunged for Zack, pelting him with a fury of punches to the chest that knocked him to the ground.

Cloud got down on his knees to straddle Zack and grabbed his shirt to lift his head off the ground, then thrust it to the dirt and disorientating his former friend. He stood up and wiped the dirt off his hands, turning around to face Tifa, who stared at him, frozen and unable to warn him.

Zack's vision focused again and he brought his knees up to his chest, rolled back on his shoulders and leap forward, extending his legs to kick Cloud in the back. Cloud grunted and fell face first to the ground at Tifa's feet. She bent down and gently placed her hand on the back of his head for comfort.

She knew that she would have done the same if it had been Zack lying at her feet, she just couldn't stand to see someone hurt. Cloud lifted his dirt covered face to look into Tifa's sympathetic eyes. She looked as thought she truly cared about him and stroked his cheek with the back of her hand.

Zack grabbed Cloud by the feet and dragged him away from Tifa. With all his might he began to spin around so that Cloud was lifted into the air. Zack let go of his ankles and watched the blonde fly several yards away, landing hard on his side. Tifa gasped to see Cloud struggle to get to his knees while clutching his ribs. He slowly got to his feet and shot Zack a death stare.

Cloud tried to block out the pain with his rage and ran toward Zack, jumping into the air and locking his feet together to kick Zack in the gut. Zack felt himself nearly vomit as he took a few steps back to recoil from the attack. Cloud landed on his feet and brought his foot up and around to kick Zack in the head. Zack stammered a little and bent at the waist to run his shoulder into Cloud's stomach and tackle him to the ground, throwing a barrage of punches once they both hit the ground.

At this point several other workers ran to peel Zack off of Cloud and separate the two men. Tifa watched as both of the men were lead to the infirmary, where they eventually passed out from their injuries. When she had composed herself she followed the workers to make sure that both Zack and Cloud would be alright.

Several hours later the men awoke in the same room, separated by a curtain. Each was shirtless, with bandages around their head, arms and chest and feeling a great deal of pain. Cloud's first thought after waking up was to wonder where Tifa was. His stomach dropped as he feared that she was with Zack in his room, that maybe the fight had drove her away from him.

Zack, on the other hand, thought of Cloud first. He knew that what he had done was wrong and that he deserved Cloud's rage. He knew that he certainly hadn't _won_ Tifa's heart by stabbing Cloud in the back by sleeping with her and then attacking him. He brought his hand up to his sore forehead and closed his eyes, regretting what he had done. Tifa was probably in Cloud's room with him after what had happened.

"Miss?" A doctor asked Tifa as she sat in the waiting room. "We need you to answer a few questions."

Tifa nodded and sat up at the edge of her seat. She had a look of concern on her face as she waited for the doctor to continue. No one had told her anything about the two men, whether they were seriously hurt or if they were okay. She had been worrying for the past few hours and wrenching her hands together until they were red and sore.

"Can you tell us what happened?" The doctor asked. Tifa took a deep breath before answering.

"It's all my fault!" She cried as tears escaped her eyes. "They were fighting over me! Are they all right?" She asked while a knot formed in the pit of her stomach.

"They'll be fine, they're just bruised. Zack has a cracked rib and a broken nose. Cloud has a bruised lung which should heel in a few days. They can both go home tonight."

Tifa placed a hand on her heart and breathed a sigh of relief. She never expected them to fight and she certainly never expected to see Cloud again. She wished that she had never let herself go to Zack. It was a moment of weakness on her part; she was missing Aeris and probably would have kissed any man that had been there for her. She hated herself for that. No matter where her relationship with Cloud could possibly go, he would always remember that she, whether it was knowingly or not, slept with his best friend. She knew he would probably never get passed that.

Zack was closest to the door when Tifa entered, so she sat next to his bed rather than walk past him to Cloud. She knew that Cloud would hear the moment she spoke to Zack but at least this way she could at least say something to Zack uninterrupted.

He smiled when he saw her. He knew that whatever she would say to him would not have a happy ending for him. When all of this was over she would leave with Cloud, there was no avoiding it and he knew that he was just going to have to deal with it.

"Hi." Tifa said softly, giving him a comforting smile.

She had wanted to say something else, to yell at him for betraying Cloud and taking advantage of her. But the truth was, she _let_ him into her hotel room and she allowed herself to fall for him in her depressed state of mind. She could only blame herself for what happened and pray that Cloud did not see her poorly.

"Hey." Zack whispered through the pain he was experiencing. "How's Cloud?" Tifa smiled at his question.

"No worse than you." She said. Zack laughed. Then he looked down at his hands folded in his lap.

"You know, Tifa, I really didn't want to hurt him, its just…well…you're…you know." Zack said. Tifa rolled her eyes and groaned.

"Right. Was it really worth losing your friend over?" Tifa asked. Zack couldn't even answer, he just looked away.

Tifa took a deep breath and stood up. She knew he wouldn't answer, but she kind of hoped that he would have. She walked to the other side of the curtain to see Cloud resting. Unlike Zack he turned away when he saw her. The smile broke on her face as she eased herself onto the chair beside Cloud. She reached out and placed her hand over his. He turned his head to look at her but did not smile or say a word.

She had just been with Zack, the night before and just a few minutes before. Whenever he looked at her he would see her with him. He was aware that she hadn't known that he was in Gonganga, or that he knew Zack, but it still stung. Not to mention the fact that she didn't believe him back in Midgar when he had risked his life to rescue her.

"How are you doing?" She asked, gently placing her hand against his cheek and trying to smile.

"Fine." Cloud stated with little emotion. Tifa lowered her head for a moment before looking at him again with tears in her eyes.

"Cloud I am _so_ sorry for all of this, I never knew that something like this would happen…I didn't want it…" She sobbed as quietly as she could so as not to disturb Zack. Cloud put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

"Sshh, sshh, its okay. You didn't know." He comforted while she rested her head against his chest.

"I…I never thought I'd see you again." She smiled through the tears and Cloud used his thumb to wipe away some of the mascara from her cheek.

"I know…"

"Is it true...did you not care about what had happened?" She asked, hoping for him to respond the way she wanted.

Cloud turned away without answering. He didn't know what to say. He wasn't the type of guy to get all choked up over a girl, no matter how he felt about her. It's just that, with Tifa, she had meant something to him, and she had hurt him, there was not many other ways he could feel. He wouldn't get upset, or even angry, he just became indifferent, he would turn the other cheek without comment.

Tifa looked away and closed her eyes, pushing the tears out and tightening her lips. With what she had done, how could Cloud have cared? She had really let him have it that day had never expected him to forgive her. Cloud looked at her and took a deep breath. He knew that what he was about to say would probably hurt her, but he thought it would be the best thing to do.

"You should…you should go with Zack." He stated. Tifa gasped and snapped her head towards him, her hair whipping around her shoulder. She felt her heart drop at his words. "I think it would be best." Tifa shook her head pleadingly and grasped his hand in both of hers.

"No, no…I want to be with you, I always have." She whispered.

"You can't just leave Zack after what you guys had."

"But…please…don't…" Tifa couldn't believe that Cloud was saying this to her. "But…you just fought, for me right?"

"Yeah but…I just can't see this working out right now."

Tifa felt as if she had been shot. She felt Cloud fading away from her, just when she had found him and thought that she had had a chance to make things right. She felt safe with him; she didn't feel that way with Zack. The thought of Reno coming back for her still haunted her to the point that being alone outside of her own house frightened her. It was part of the reason she had let Zack get so close to her, for protection.

"Please don't say that…it could work, I know it could." She pleaded once again, searching Cloud's blue eyes for a hint of compassion, but saw none.

"I'm really sorry." Was all he said.

Her lower lip quivered as she waited for him to change his mind. She knew that she must have looked terrible, her face all red and twisted into a frown with black mascara lines streaking her cheeks. She must have looked like a monster. And she had never been so broken hearted. She had learned the truth and wanted to try and make things work with Cloud, and here he was turning her down.

After a moment of fully taking in what Cloud had said, she cupped her mouth with her hands and stood up. She gave Cloud another minute of silence to see if he would figure out what he had done, but still he didn't. With a loud sob she turned and ran from the room and out of the hospital.

* * *

"Wake up Rude." Reno commanded while hitting his friend over the head with a rolled up newspaper.

Rude jumped as he stirred, looking around the room to gather his bearings. He had fallen asleep on the couch watching T.V. and was still half asleep when Reno began to speak again.

"We're going to Gonganga." The redhead stated abruptly.

"Okay, why?" Rude asked, hoping Reno would tell him it was for a job prospect.

Since Reno had been fired as a Turk he had been laying around the apartment that he shared with Rude all day, and annoying his bald friend all night. All he ever talked about was Tifa, and the mistake that was made that night and how he needed to rectify everything. It really got on Rude's nerves but he had learned to tune out the chatter.

"_She's_ there." Reno said with a maniacal grin on his face. Rude rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair, slapping his palm against his thigh.

"Why won't you just quit with that already?" He asked, annoyed. Reno walked over and sat next to his friend.

"Because egghead," Reno said while knocking on Rude's head, "She ruined my life. What other work could I possibly do? Now come on, its your _job_ to take out bad people, and she is bad people."

"I take out people who are a threat to Shinra. Not Shinra's daughter!" Rude snarled. "Now I am _not_ helping you."

"Aww come on big guy, you're in this as much as I am. You've been with me through everything else, why abandon me now?"

"Because you're drunk. Not to mention totally insane!"

"Well I beg to differ." Reno sneered, pulling out his mag rod and charging up the end.

Rude weighed his options very carefully: either kill the president's daughter or fight Reno, his long time friend, part time lunatic. Tifa had done nothing wrong, _he _was wrong for trying to foil Cloud's attempt to save her from Reno, and by being at the club the night that Reno tried to kill her. He sighed heavily and got into battle stance by bending into a lunge and holding his fists up in the air.

"Bring it on." Rude said calmly.

Reno held his mag rod behind his head as he lunged for Rude, bringing the electrified prongs down into his friends ribs. Rude felt the electronic charge course through his body as he began shaking uncontrollably until Reno withdrew his weapon. Rude placed a knee on the ground and held himself up with one fist as he clutched his side with his free hand.

He glared at Reno and leaped toward him, grabbing his ears and slamming his head against Reno's. Reno stood in a daze for a minute before regaining his balance and lifted his rod to strike Rude across the face, but Rude held up his bicep to block the attack.

"Huh?" Reno grunted, unprepared for the defense.

Rude grabbed onto Reno's wrist and flung him into the couch, knocking it over. Reno's arms shook as he pushed himself up onto his hands, then fell again before gaining enough strength to stand up. He took a few steps to steady himself and yelled as he thrust the mag rod into Rude's gut.

Rude clenched his teeth to withstand the pain and reached for Reno's arm. He twisted it behind Reno's back and bent at the waist to throw Reno over his back and into the wall. Reno growled and ran towards Rude, leaping into the air foot first to land a kick to Rude's face. As Reno's foot was in his face, Rude grabbed onto the redhead's leg and threw him into the kitchen counter.

Reno sat on the floor holding his head while Rude ran towards him poised to punch. Reno rolled across the floor and Rude smashed his hand through the lower cabinet. Reno stretched out his mag rod to poke Rude in the back, but the bald man pulled out a metal pot to block the rod, sending the electric jolt back into Reno, who twitched violently before falling to the ground, smoke rising from his shoulders.

"So forget it." Rude stated, turning his back toward Reno and pulling out a beer.

Reno jumped to his feet and rushed toward Rude, stabbing him in the back with his mag rod. Rude's whole body pulsed with electricity, before he fell to the ground in agony, hitting his head on the kitchen counter as he did so. Reno stepped towards him and kicked him over, so that Rude was sitting on the floor with his back resting against the cabinet. Reno held up his weapon to Rude's throat.

"Forget what?" He asked cynically. Rude sighed heavily and looked away from Reno, rolling his eyes.

"Fine, I'll go with you. But when you fail this time, promise me you'll give it up."

"Fine. Now get up, we have a train to catch." Reno scoffed.


	10. What Stands Between Us

Author's Note: I took the weekend off, but I'm back to finish the final chapter. This is it, I know, it was so long ago that I started this story, and…it's finally come to an end. Don't worry, I'll try not to disappear again, at least not until school starts again. I posted another chapter of Victim; I found out that I had had a completed chapter just sitting on my computer waiting to be uploaded all this time, oops. Plus this version is exactly like the old one, except I've taken out the parts that got it deleted two years ago. If you read it, please know that I'm not very concerned with writing it better right now, so if it seems like low level writing, it is, I'm just trying to get the story back up as true to the original version as I could. In my absence I have gotten reviews on stories that I didn't know anyone read anymore. That's great, especially for Of You. I tell you people, that's my favorite story to date. It's beautiful. Also, to all you Reno fans out there, I'm sorry that I made him such an ass in this story. I actually like Reno a lot; I don't know why I made him so evil. In retrospect I guess I should have used Sephiroth…I don't know why I never but Sephy into my stories. Hmm…Anyway, enjoy the final chapter of Workerbee!

* * *

The evening sky was burnt orange in color, the sun shining in the sky like a spotlight in the middle of the night. The sun was nearly white in color, barely visible behind the scores of brightly illuminated clouds hovering above Gonganga. The temperature was cooling rapidly as the faint glint of stars speckled the horizon.

It was past working hours for the people of Gonganga. It seemed like five o'clock was the signal for the entire town to close up for the day. The streets were nearly empty except for a few children chasing each other before their parents called them home for dinner. The only businesses that remained open were the restaurants and bars that dotted the main street towards the road into town.

The construction workers responsible for building the reactor had clocked out for the day just an hour earlier. Work on the reactor was coming along steadily, still far from completion, but just about half way. The underground portion had been finished that day with the final installment of the last Mako container that Cloud had helped build.

The aboveground part of the reactor was where the Mako was transformed from its original form into a usable energy source. The control switch above the surface was used for maintenance work during a power outage and to supply electricity to the city. In the center of this building was a manhole with a ladder that led underground to the reactor's main chamber. Below the ground was housed the Mako containers. The structures sucked up large amounts of Mako from the planet and heated it to an extreme temperature before sending it up the metal pipes and into the above chamber for processing.

Between the containers was a round platform with railings around it and a switchboard for controlling the pressure and temperature inside the containers. The containers reached to the artificial ceiling above the platform and about thirty feet below. The bottom of the containers sat in a pool of natural Mako, or Lifestream. The cool green liquid had formed a pocket beneath the Earth's crust and in some areas was closer to the crust than in others. The areas where the Lifestream was close to the surface was the prime locations for Shinra's reactors. The largest concentration of Mako had been found in Midgar, but several pools had been discovered in other parts of the country. For years Shinra had been working on an effective way to reach Mako that was deep underground to branch their empire to parts of the world without shallow pockets of Lifestream, like Costa Del Sol and Wutai.

What the world didn't know was that the cost to destroy the planet's source of Lifestream was much cheaper than to dredge up coal from the mines, which Shinra also owned to have a complete monopoly against the world's source of power. Charging more for Mako electricity was Shinra's greatest crime against the working class, and keeping society in the dark about costs had allowed Shinra to flourish in the past several decades.

Tifa Lockheart, the person most privy to the gains of Shinra's deeds stood on the metal grating beneath the ground of the construction site. She supported herself with her arms resting against the railing as she leaned over to gaze at the luminescent liquid below her, the green light highlighting her features as she frowned. Each tear that ran down her cheek fell into the pool below and was absorbed into the Lifestream.

The ceiling had been built after the fight between Cloud and Zack. While many of the workers tried to ignore their coworkers attacking each other, several had stood on the sidelines to watch, placing bets and cheering for their favorite while Tifa had watched in horror.

She could believe the fact that she had torn two friends apart, that, she had done before, but never had she cared so much about each of them. Usually when the boys fought for her, it was of their own accord, but this time, she had actually done something to heat the argument.

What she didn't understand and what had been plaguing her since she left the hospital was what Cloud had said to her after the brawl. She had replayed his words in her mind over and over again, each time bringing her more despair. She hadn't been able to right her wrong and it was eating away at her. Cloud hadn't accepted her; instead he had turned her away, insisting that she return to Zack.

Realizing that Zack was not the man she thought he was had been difficult, to figure out that someone so caring could do something so heinous to a friend was mind blowing. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like what Aeris had done to her by lying about Cloud. No wonder Zack had been so perfect for Aeris.

She couldn't go back to Zack even if she had wanted to. He had been just a curtain away when she begged Cloud not to discard her, when she told him that she wanted to be with him, not Zack. How could Zack take her back after that?

An open pool of Lifestream was considered a religious monument. The only known source was in Mideel. Scores of devout believers flocked to Mideel's lake each year to witness the Lifestream and pray to their departed loved ones.

Tifa stared into the Lifestream below her, praying to Aeris for guidance. It was believed that the souls of those who died returned to the planet as Lifestream to keep it alive. Though Tifa had never truly believed that the substance that powered her house was the souls of the dead, she found it comforting to speak to the liquid as if Aeris could really hear her.

* * *

"No one's even here, how's _that_ supposed to do anything?" Rude asked with a deeply agitated tone.

He and Reno had not spoken a word to each other on the trip from Midgar to Gonganga. The fact that Reno had beaten him in a one-on-one match had badly bruised Rude's ego. He had always considered himself the better fighter; it just appeared that no matter how skilled he was he had no chance against Reno's weapon.

Reno stood beside his friend with a smug grin across his face. Beating Rude into submission felt so good considering he had been out of work for several months. Still being able to hold his own in a fight gave him a new sense of self confidence. He rolled his eyes and scoffed as he gently tossed five sticks of dynamite held together with duct tape up into the air, before firmly catching the homemade device and tossing it again. There was a timer and a remote control detonator attached to the top of the dynamite beneath the arch of wicks that were tied together.

"Tomorrow afternoon when the sun is hot and everyone, _including_ that bitch are all standing around like idiots, I press _this_ button," Reno pointed to a big red switch on his remote control, "and this whole thing goes kablooey!" He laughed maniacally.

Rude sighed with indignation, imagining with anger the innocent lives that would be destroyed for Reno's revenge the next day. Rude never wanted anyone to get hurt that didn't deserve it; he hated this vengeful side of his friend. Especially since Reno wanted to hurt Tifa, someone who hadn't done anything to Reno, everything that happened to the redheaded Turk had been brought onto himself, not by her.

"Do we really have to do this?" Rude asked. Reno growled.

"Yeah, we do. Now get over your ethics crap, you're a Turk goddammit, and we stand behind each other."

"You're not one anymore…" Rude mumbled under his breath. Reno snapped his head to glare at his bald partner.

"You say something?" He snarled. Rude shook his head.

"No." He said, rolling his eyes.

"Then shut up and come with me. We're gonna see what's inside this thing."

Reno strolled over to the ladder and began to climb down to the lower level, with Rude close at his heels. Reno imagined the news report that would be shown after the death of the President's daughter. The bomb was designed to leave no traces of itself behind and the attack would most likely appear to be caused by some sort of mechanical error, just as it had years ago when the previous reactor exploded.

Reno laughed to himself as he made his way down the ladder and to the platform below. He hopped down a few rungs from the bottom and landed on his feet, then stood up to brush the dust off of his Turk uniform while waiting to make sure Rude was still coming.

He turned around without hearing Tifa's original gasp, and he in turn was surprised to find her in the reactor's core. A devilish grin spread across his lips as he thanked the planet for this opportunity. Once Rude had descended the ladder and noticed Tifa as well, she was trapped. With two Turks surrounding her on the small platform the only way for her to go was down into the Lifestream, which would poison her and kill her within minutes.

Tifa's heart raced as she pressed her back against the railing, staring at the two men in front of her. She was trapped, her only exit was blocked and she was alone. Before either of the men made a move she could see her life flash before her eyes. She prayed to the planet for a miracle, tightening her grip on the railing behind her.

"Well, well, well, isn't this a lovely gift from the Planet?" Reno asked, turning to Rude. "Looks like all those other people don't have to die after all." Rude could only shake his head, while Reno set the bomb down next to the ladder. Tifa lifted her chin in defiance as Reno took a step towards her. "Aww, come on, you don't want to play?" Reno mused. Tifa flared her nostrils and breathed heavily.

"You…you killed Aeris." She stated. Reno laughed and looked away for a second.

"That, was an accident. I never meant to hurt her. It was unfortunate."

"You bastard!" Tifa screamed.

All the rage that was built up inside her from all that she had lost came to a boiling point as she lunged at Reno. She wanted to kill him, to smash his face in until he felt the pain that she had when he had killed her best friend. Before she could even get her fist to his face Reno grabbed her by the wrist.

Tifa felt her arm being crushed by Reno's vice-like grip and suddenly she felt a pain in her gut and her throat began to choke for air. She looked into Reno's cold eyes as tears autonomously welled up in her own eyes. She looked down to the source of her pain in slow motion, fearing she would lose consciousness if she made any sudden movements. Time seemed to stand still when she realized she had been stabbed in the stomach with Reno's mag rod, and that thousands of volts of electricity were coursing through her body. She felt her life slipping away as she looked back up at Reno pleadingly. With achingly slow speed she felt her body slip out of Reno's grasp and fall to the ground, striking her head on the railing as she did so.

Reno smiled at his victim as he removed his weapon from her abdomen, then bent down on one knee to check her pulse after she had hit the floor. After finding one he looked up at Rude with a sadistic grin.

"What are you going to do now?" Rude asked, fearing all the possibilities that Reno could answer with.

"What any self-respecting man would do in this situation." Reno huffed.

He rotated on his knee and straddled Tifa. With the anticipation of a child on Christmas morning he lifted his hands to rest above her chest. With great care he began to unbutton her shirt slowly, taking his time with each button to prolong his suspense. Rude turned away beat red, raising his hands to cover his face while he shook his head in despair.

Reno pulled each side of Tifa's blouse aside as if he were laying out a towel. He stared at her scarcely-clad chest before moving his hands beneath her back to unsnap her bra. He knew that Rude would enjoy the show as much as he would, and turned to see his partner leaning over the railing, forcing himself not to look.

"Why do you have to do this?" Rude asked, taking a deep sigh. Reno blinked before answering.

"What, are you in love with her or something?" Reno narrowed his eyes at his friend. Rude looked over at him with flared nostrils.

"This isn't about your job anymore, is it?" Rude asked.

Reno didn't even give him the satisfaction of an answer. Instead he licked his lips and laughed, shaking his head as he looked back at Tifa, who lay motionless beneath him. The simplest thing to do would have been to just kill her before she even had the chance to wake up, but there was no fun in that.

Just as he was about to unclasp her support, Reno heard the distinct sound of footsteps above his head. He quickly snapped his head to focus on the opening to the surface, just as a pair of brown boots leapt down into the lower chamber to land just feet away from Reno. He slowly looked up to meet the man's gaze, seeing a possessed expression of rage, with eyes intent on homicide.

"What brings _you_ here?" Reno asked as calmly as he could, while reaching for his weapon.

"I saw lights flashing from the reactor when I left the hospital. I recognized them from quite some time ago." A spiked blonde stated.

Reno glared at Cloud as he stood up, drawing his mag rod and holding it in front of him. Cloud furrowed his brow and raised his fists up in a ready stance, taking note of Tifa's body lying on the floor behind Reno.

Reno grunted at lunged at Cloud with his weapon. Cloud grabbed him by the wrist and lifted him up off of the ground and over his shoulders to slam against the ladder. Reno landed on his head with his feet bent over onto the ground.

"While you're down there, why don't you go ahead and kiss your own ass!" Cloud sneered, squatting down to look Reno in the eyes.

"Go to hell." Reno snarled, then rolled over and swung his leg around to kick Cloud in the face.

Cloud fell back over Tifa but quickly recovered by swinging his leg into Reno's ankles to knock the Turk down. Rude grabbed Cloud from behind to hold him still while Reno got up and punched the blonde in the face a few times before Cloud drove his heel into Rude's foot to get released. Reno shoved his mag rod into Cloud's side but the younger man fought through the pain, sending his elbow into Reno's jaw and kneeing him in the gut.

Reno backed into a railing to regain his balance before smashing his weapon across Cloud's face like a baseball bat. Cloud took a few steps back after the blow and Rude tackled him into the railing. Reno stood on the other side of Cloud as both he and Rude leaned Cloud back so that he was hanging over the railing, threatening to let him fall into the Mako below.

"You just had to play hero, didn't you?" Reno growled while pushing Cloud back further.

"What's the matter Reno; need Rude to help you get things done?" Reno turned to find where the voice was coming from. Zack stood at the base of the ladder with his hands on his hips and a sardonic smile plastered across his face. "I saw some sparks flying from the reactor, never thought I'd see you again, huh?"

Reno gritted his teeth and shoved Cloud over the railing. The blonde grabbed onto the base of the platform to keep from falling into the Lifestream. He looked down to be blinded by the eerie green glow for a moment. He looked back up as Rude rushed from the railing to aid Reno.

Zack leaped into the air and straddled his legs to kick both Reno and Rude in the face, sending them both back a few steps. Reno drove his mag rod into Zack's gut while Rude punched him in the head. Zack grabbed Reno and Rude's heads and knocked them together, knocking the two men out.

"Zack!" Cloud screamed, feeling his grip weakening.

Zack ran over to the railing as Cloud lost his grip with one hand, now hanging precariously by five fingers. Zack locked his feet beneath the bottom railing and leaned over to reach for Cloud.

"Give me your other hand!" He shouted to his former friend.

All their anger seemed to melt away once Cloud resisted his hesitation to reach his free hand up to grasp Zack's wrist. The ex-Soldier tightened his grip on Cloud by clasping his other hand to Cloud's and struggling to pull the young blonde back onto the platform.

As soon as Cloud fell over the railing back onto the platform he was kicked in the back by Reno. When he hit the ground he looked over at Tifa, still unmoving, with her shirt unbuttoned and laying open to display her chest. In another context Cloud admitted to himself that he would have been turned on, but not tonight. Seeing her lying helpless while the fighting went on around her angered him.

The thought of Reno would have done to her if he had not shown up when he did enraged him. He leaped up and wrapped his hands around Reno's neck, driving the redhead back against the ladder until his eyes rolled back into his head. Cloud released him and ran to Tifa.

Zack had received a fist to his jaw from Rude once Cloud had gotten back over the rail. The bald man grabbed his ears and lowered Zack's head onto his knee, further injuring the ex-Soldier's nose. Zack plowed his shoulder into Rude's gut and drove him back against the wall next to Reno.

Cloud lifted Tifa's head onto his lap and stroked her hair gently out of her face. A faint sounded emanated from her throat and Cloud clutched her head to his chest. He looked down to see a small amount of blood dripping through the metal grating and into the Lifestream where her head had rested. Zack stood over the two Turks to wait for them to get up. He turned his back to them to watch Cloud with Tifa.

It was like he was back at the hospital all over again. Seeing Cloud hold her…it felt like she was begging to be with Cloud and not him again. It had hurt his ego to hear her say that, to know that as soon as Cloud came back into the picture she would have discarded him after he had listened to her that night.

"Don't think you're getting away, dipshits." Reno moaned almost inaudibly.

Zack turned around to see Reno clutching a homemade bomb to his chest and grinning. Zack's eyes widened as Reno pressed the red button on his remote control and a little panel on the bomb lit up with the number thirty. Each passing second ticked away at the bomb and both Reno and Rude staggered to their feet.

Reno set the bomb down next to the ladder and reached up to climb, but Zack grabbed him by the collar and flung him back into the rail. Rude came after Zack but was kneed in the groin and fell to the floor.

"Cloud, you got twenty seconds, get out of here!" Zack screamed as the Turks closed in on him.

Cloud looked up as Zack ran between the Turks with his arms out to hit them both in the face. He then glanced over at the bomb near the ladder and then back down to Tifa. He nodded to Zack and lifted Tifa up over his shoulder. He reached the ladder and began to climb, but Reno crawled over and grabbed him by the ankle to try and pull him down.

Zack jumped onto Reno's back as he lay on the floor clasping Cloud's foot, pulled his head back by his hair, and then smashed his face into the metal. Rude came from behind to try and grab Zack but the brunette threw his head back into Rude's face, breaking the bald man's glasses. Cloud reached the top of the ladder and pushed Tifa up to solid ground. He leaned over the opening, waiting for Zack to appear.

"Zack!" He called.

"Get out of here!" Zack yelled back, throwing a few more punches at the Turks.

Cloud realized what Zack was doing but knew that he was powerless to stop his friend. He needed to get Tifa to safety and he lifted her into his arms, setting her over his shoulder once again as he ran from the reactor.

He was no more than a hundred feet from the reactor he had put so much effort into building when it exploded. He threw Tifa to the ground and leaped on top of her to shield her as a stream of fire and explosive debris shot up from below the earth. Cloud looked over his shoulder at the blast that surely killed his best friend and the two Turks. A cloud of fire and smoke had grown above the reactor once the initial explosion had ended. This cloud sent metal shards up to fifty yards away, and raining down atop Cloud. Luckily no large chunks of metal hit him or Tifa as he tensed his muscles to prepare for such a blow.

When the smoke cleared and the dust settled Cloud raised his head. He coughed up some dirt and wiped the sweat from his brow. He looked down at Tifa beneath him. There was a cut across her forehead where a piece of metal had struck her during the explosion, and there was the gash on the back of her head where she had hit the railing and knocked herself out.

He sat back on his knees and lifted her up to clutch her to his chest. He rocked back and forth, trying to get her to wake up. He heard her stir for a moment, but she did not open her eyes or speak. Her head rolled back over his arm and he shook her gently.

"Tifa. Tifa. Tifa?" He whispered, but she did not respond.

He felt his heart sink as he feared the worst. He knew that he had just lost Zack, and that the Turks too had perished in the explosion, but he just couldn't stand to lose Tifa, not like this. He put his head to her chest and heard a heartbeat. He picked her up, one arm supporting her back as her arms and head hung loosely near his right side, and the other arm beneath her knees. He walked slowly, with a limp from his previous battle, down the road back towards the hospital, praying for Tifa's life.


End file.
